The Outcast
by Fragmented Disillusionment
Summary: A plague is spreading, a plague whispered about in back allies and on internet forums despite all attempts to keep it silent. Its victims are lucky if they're still human, luckier if they still remember their own name.  Multiple Pokemon TFs
1. …and the Void Shouted Back

A/N:Hey everybody! Whatever everybody there is… I'm not sure if people read pokemon fanfiction anymore. But I've felt for the longest time that I had one last story in me, one final pokemon TF fanfic. I guess my last one wasn't really TF… a mistake I intend to correct with this story. For those who haven't read any of my prior work: This story is a direct continuation of Probable Descent, my last pokemon fanfic. Don't take it to mean you need to have read any of those previous stories to understand this one, but if you enjoy TF and you enjoy Pokemon, you'd probably enjoy them too.

Pokemon and the pokemon franchise are copyright gamefreak, Nintendo, and everybody else who might own it at this time. I do not claim any ownership thereof, and make use of their universe through the terms of fair use. Please don't sue me.

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Prologue: "…and the Void Shouted Back"

Senior research fellow Adam Newton hardly looked the part his title implied. His hair was disheveled, his personal hygiene sometimes left a little to be desired, and he lined his research space with plushies and other childish toys. But what he lacked in presentability he made up for with raw talent, or else he wouldn't still be employed. A remarkably short time ago, Adam had just been a student, which was a prestigious opportunity in itself, considering the school was the best-recognized technical college in all of Kanto.

In many ways, Adam was very similar to his colleagues in the technical field: Young, lazy, and brilliant. The man was on the wrong side of twenty but the right side of thirty, with circuit-board-green eyes and black hair that probably would've broken any comb that tried to tame it. He spent many of his working hours the way most programmers did: not working. Although in this case, it was difficult to blame him. Despite his title, he'd been relegated to a relatively minor office in the basement, and one late evening found the television the only sound in the otherwise silent chamber, as it often was. Adam leaned back in his chair, half-asleep, dirty shoes resting on one of the several desks in the room as his subconscious barely listened to the squawking reporter whose outline his mostly closed eyes could barely make out.

"Celadon police announced today that fourteen additional individuals had been officially added to the city's missing person list, presumed to be the latest victims of what authorities are calling the 'mutagenic nano-virus resurgence.' What the authorities have as of yet not explained is how the current victims could have been harmed by the now-defunct Rocket virus, when, according to their families, they had all received the state-mandated vaccinations to that virus. Could this be some new mutation of the artificial plague that nearly wiped out human life in Kanto forty-five years ago? Our on-site reporter has more."

Adam sat up slightly more awake as he heard the name of his current residence, the city where he also happened to be working as a researcher. Behind him, his Porygon2 seemed to shimmer a little in midair, tilting its head to one side in an inquisitive, questioning sort of way. The thing spoke, a meaningless splurge of its own name and letters and numbers and symbols all jumbled together, but his computer processed those sounds into a message that flashed briefly across the screen. At least, it was a message to Adam. To many of his lesser colleagues, it was just as meaningless. Porygon was, after all, the only fully artificial pokemon, constructed of computer code and matter synthesis. From Adam's point of view, he was the greatest example of everything he believed: That computers could literally rewrite the universe.

The screen flashed only briefly with what his Porygon had said, but Adam took it all in with a glance.

_"outputStream (arg []){_

_ iterate! (loops: long newLong(MS4w))_

_ new Proper eContext = (inputStream QWRhbQ==);_

_ eContext%=_IO_PARAMATERS;_

_ break;_

_}"_

He replied at once, and was almost sharp as he did so, obviously eager to get back to the program he was watching. "No, I'm not afraid, Ion. Of course I'm worried something like this is happening in Celadon, but… I'm sure the authorities can handle it." Meanwhile, the field reporter was standing outside the Celadon Hotel, one of the wealthiest places in the city. Or at least it had been.

"Many residents remember the meteorite impact that inflicted heavy damage on the upper levels of the Celadon hotel roughly five years ago. Nearly fifty people were killed in the initial impact. That the structure and so many of those inside survived was considered miraculous." The camera zoomed in on the police barriers for a moment, then the top floors of the building, which had little left but steel struts. The little plastic "Condemned" posters were plastered all over the lower floors, but as of yet, no demolition had taken place. "Survivors are now questioning this reality, as almost all of the 142 names on the Missing Persons list were either staying at the hotel at the time or are the immediate family and friends of someone who was."

"But Cindy!" The anchor asked from one side of the screen, in predictable mainstream-news fashion. "Weren't the survivors all screened after the impact? How could something like this happen?"

"Thorough screening of all involved did take place, though it was mostly for radiation. Still, authorities aren't ruling anything out. As this is the only lead any of them have to go on, they're urging all citizens who were present at the Hotel or who came in contact with someone who was to report to any of the three designated processing centers…" A map appeared briefly on the screen. "for their own safety. Those who do so will be given complete medical care at no charge. Those who do not report within 3 days will be forced to submit themselves to medical care in the public interest." She then looked straight forward, in what was obviously an attempt to make an appeal to the Ethos of the audience.

"Please, if any of you watching were there, submit yourself to medical care immediately: You could be helping to stop the spread of the most dangerous plague mankind has ever seen."

Adam made a frustrated gesture at his television then, which deactivated at once in response. He was mostly speaking to himself, but he glanced over his shoulder at the Porygon2 as he spoke, as though in some-way indicating him. "See that, Ion? They talk all about this plague but don't even mention what happened to the people who went missing, not once. Even if they'd caught that old Rocket thing, you'd expect at least one of them to have died… most of the people that caught it just died! And the ones that didn't… how clever is your average person when they're crammed into a pokemon brain? Could the infected even escape their own homes that way? It's bull, all of it. They're not telling us something, and that something's really important."

Adam didn't look at his computer-screen to see what Porygon had said in response; He didn't much care just now. Still slightly groggy, he flipped on the lights, which abruptly lit the room with harsh white. There were his twelve consoles, daisy-chained together into the most powerful supercomputer this half of the content. Infinitely more valuable, though, was the collection of wires and receptors attached to the end of the rightmost console. Few at the university knew Adam had actually stole this little machine and the software to run it from an abandoned laboratory in his childhood, along with this Porygon and innumerable technical texts. Adam claimed to have invented it himself, and with no evidence to the contrary, it had made a significant part of what earned him his current role. But so much of the code had to be rewritten. Whoever had originally built it had done so as a rather permanent solution… when worn by an individual, that individual was (for lack of a better word) "downloaded" from their own brain into a vastly powerful computer, rendering them a sort of artificial immortality. That was his theory as to the machine's real purpose, though he hadn't told anybody the theory.

Adam had taken the machine and, in a legitimate show of technical skill, changed it from a device of complete download and erasure to one of read and write… it saw the brain as a hard-drive written in its own biological code, and parsed that code into a language that could be read on a computer screen. At least, that was the theory. It hadn't actually been tested yet. At least… it hadn't been tested aside from the little bits of scorched hair he'd found in the wiring, obviously belonging to two distinct individuals. But he hadn't mentioned that either.

Adam's musings were interrupted, however, by the most intense pain he had felt in his entire life. Indeed, the most intense pain he would ever feel. It felt as though somebody had reached straight inside his body, where no hands had a right to be, and started yanking hard on his soul, twisting it so hard his heart nearly gave out with every turn. Quite unceremoniously, the disheveled programmer dropped limply to the floor, stripped even of the ability to cry out, or move. It was not a sensation confined to one specific part of his body. Even as he lay there limply, struggling to gather the energy to breathe… struggling to even care enough to breathe… he heard the words of that night's news-report in his ears, and saw that same night five years ago, when he'd first arrived from Palette and been staying just a night at the Celadon hotel until he could move into the dorms. He remembered the way the building had started to shake before the impact, same as all the other structures in Celadon. He remembered the impact, an awful second that simulated a severe earthquake and caused everything in his room to come tumbling down on top of him. Then, as abruptly as flicking off a light, he remembered nothing at all.

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Sensation was slow to return after that. Adam thought he saw sunlight coming in from the tiny window, but he couldn't be sure. He wasn't surprised none of the cleaning staff had found his unconscious body: They'd given up on keeping his office clean months ago. He was surprised nobody had called though, not so much as a whisper on the phone still buried somewhere in his pocket. Or maybe they had, and he simply hadn't woken up. Adam would not have been surprised if an Atom Bomb had gone off somewhere in the city and not woken him up with as awful as he felt. So he sat up, and brushed himself off, glancing over his body for any sign of injury.

Or… wait. No he didn't. He continued to lie there, gradually aware of the ache that laced his body like a gymnast's ribbon. Adam swore under his breath, or tried… again, nothing happened. /My neck's broken, isn't it?/ He thought to himself, practically whimpering with pain and panic. /Now I'm gonna lie here until somebody finds me… probably suffocate long before then. Probably suffocating now./

'You really think so?' Came a voice from inside his head, rather suddenly. It had no sound that could be correlated to it, thought Adam heard it in the same mental voice he always read the errors his compiler threw him while he was coding: a shrill female voice that had something unpleasant jammed somewhere personal. 'Gosh, here I thought that'd I'd worked real hard all this time incubating a carrier strong enough to infect your so called 'dominant' species, and all the credit goes to a neck-injury. I'm hurt. Here… lemmie show you.' Without meaning to… without meaning to do much of anything, Adam stood up. It felt like being manipulated. A puppet, controlling him awkwardly and mechanically as he walked over to a tiny mirror glued to the back of the closed door to the hallway, and looked in at his own face. What he saw nearly made him scream, except that he lacked any control over his own body. The parts of his body that were sore… like the stretch crossing his face… weren't just sore: They were raw, as though dreadfully sunburned. Swolen and blistered and red. It wasn't just his face, either. Random swathes of his whole body ached this way, and a few of the blisters had already burst, expelling putrid-smelling pus as they did. Had he seen this in anyone else, he would've thrown up. Heck, if he'd been in control of himself, he might've thrown up. But he wasn't, so he just stood there, staring.

'Like it? Just wait until you see when it's finished, I've got all sorts of changes in store. So much tissue you don't need. Evolutionary excesses. Or maybe they weren't excesses, but a lesser servitor race doesn't need them. You should be congratulated: you're one of the first. A position of great pride. And when I'm done you'll infect this whole university, isn't that great?' Adam was powerless to resist as he sat down in his own chair, putting up his own legs as he often did and stretching out in a relaxed sort of way. Doing so hurt enormously, popping several more blisters he couldn't even see. 'Only half a step away from the Firstborn. Yeah right. Even with all your fancy machines, you're no better off than the weakest pokemon. Caterpie, that's what you are.'

Adam did not respond to the presence, did not reply in a thought, or even consider what his response might be. He didn't care. Likewise, he didn't think much about what he was doing next, determined not to give the voice any insight as to what he was thinking. Whatever this presence was… it was clearly malign, and had to be fought. He had to retake his body! He had only one chance… Ion. The Porygon2 had blinked into existence from its hibernation state as he stood, protesting in a long series of instructions Adam could not direct his head at the screen to read. He knew the pokemon must be terrified for his health, though… Ion was one of the most intelligent pokemon he knew, and had been ever-grateful to him for freeing it from its confinement. Adam knew Ion was his only hope, though… he didn't try anything until the pokemon had drifted right in front of his face, protesting again, and loudly.

'Look at your construct, it's sad for you! Aren't you going to say something to comfort it? Maybe you should say that it's meaningless artificial life without a soul. No wait, let me.' And so Adam did, his voice slow and mechanical. At the exact same moment though, Adam struggled with all his might, concentrating all his effort on one of his eyes. With the greatest mental exertion he could remember, he forced himself to blink. On and on and on he went, closing and opening his one eye with mechanical precision. The voice did not seem to notice.

_"01101001 01101111 01101110 00101110 01010100 01001101 00110011 00101000 01100001 00101001 00111011"_

Fortunately for Adam, his Porygon2 did not listen to his scornful words, which his own mouth was producing quite regularly now. Neither payed much attention to what the voice had to say. Abruptly, Ion narrowed its eyes, and Adam could feel the charge in the air as the pokemon prepared an attack. The voice did not have time to respond, to either of them. In a near-instantaneous moment, Porygon2 glowed with psionic force, and struck Adam with it with enough energy to send his chair sliding across the room, and his own body slamming off of it to land in an injured heap.

As quickly as it came, the voice was gone, leaving Adam alone with his own thoughts. He did not try to move, not at first: He knew the presence had fully gone as tears of pain began to distort his face, a quite natural result of his unfathomable mutilation. He did a quick mental inventory: No bones felt broken, though his head was pounding. But he ignored that. Ion's Psyshock had banished the presence for now, and he would make maximum use of whatever moments he had. "Thanks, Ion." He croaked as he rose staggering to his feet, able to stand just long enough to slump into the chair. He felt like hell, and probably looked worse. Adam wouldn't glance in the mirror. There was no time for that. "No, I didn't mean any of those things. But…" And he coughed then, expelling a little blood into one of his hands. "I probably don't have much time. I don't know what that thing was, so… I don't know how long it will take to re-establish control." He gestured weakly to the loose helmet of wires hanging on the far end of the room, pushing weakly on the floor with his good leg to bring himself closer to it. "Help me put it on." Ion protested, but not much. It could see the severity of the situation, knew that however dangerous using an untested bit of neurotechnology was, doing nothing would be infinitely worse.

So, with the wire-helmet wrapped gingerly around his head, Adam flipped several switches he knew he shouldn't, and quickly compiled the program he knew very well might end his life.

_kernel_1293845_newtonsputin$ -r transceiver . pke args: FULL_IMPORT, ISOLATE, RECOMPILE_ONLY_

As he pressed enter, Adam felt a brief surge of energy. Had it not been for the day before, and recently being attacked by his own pokemon, he would've called the feeling intensely painful. It wasn't anymore. And he wasn't electrocuted: Adam did not fall limply to one side never to move again. Rather, all of the monitors mounted to the walls all filled with streams of data. And filled, and filled, and filled, blanking over and over and over much too fast for the human eye to see. When it was finished, only a minute or so later, all the monitors blanked except the one immediately in front of Adam, which filled with a few lines of text.

_all stability tests passed (good job Adam, buy yourself a cold one)_

_ Adam . pke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.21 * 10^22 bytes (ISOLATED)_

_Error: Adam . pke is being edited anyway. Will attempt to compensate, but expect runtime errors._

_ROC: .000001% sec._

_Available Commands_

_1 - Recompile and Run_

_2 - Edit_

_3 - Delete_

_4 - Exit_

Adam shivered as he read his brief testcode, which had tore apart his mind as though it were another program, and stored in the vast satellite mainframe. What frightened him most was that it was still being edited… that would be the presence that had ripped his body away, taking it back. And doing… whatever else it was doing. He had little time. With a few quick strokes, he opened up the program that was his entire being. The helmet sparked several times, and Adam slumped backward into the chair, overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information. He saw stretched out before him his entire life… every memory and every thought he had ever had. The information poured into his conscious mind, which would've been unable to processes it were it not for the assistance of the computers buffering it for him. Still it should've killed him, but perhaps by luck, perhaps something else, prevented that. So before his eyes ran the fabric of his being… not just what he knew, but what he /was/. His entire genetic structure was there, and so was the hidden subconscious truth that operated his mind. In that instant, he knew he could've redefined the fields of both psychology and philosophy, except that he wouldn't remember any of this when the machine was disconnected.

His fingers flew across the keyboard as fast as his weak body could manage, navigating his way to the section of his own code he needed: The functions that some alien entity was adding. He saw the way the beings were doing it, gradually weakening his hold on reality until his mind was feeble enough for them to rip something vital from him, something science said shouldn't exist. Without that something, he would be an empty shell, just another tool to be used without free will or intelligence. That he would not allow.

First Adam rewrote the routine that was altering his body, changing the genetic and neurological messages to repair the body instead of deactivating his immune system, allowing him to rot away as the microbes in his body ate him alive. This part was easy enough: He already knew about the healing routines his body contained. For efficiency's sake, he quadrupled the constants that governed healing and his immune system. So that much was taken care of. The mental part was trickier, made much worse because it was constantly being rewritten. Every moment it was hidden somewhere else, and every moment it would run in a slightly different way, trying to connect him with the entity that had taken brief control of his body. He was fortunate that the computers seemed to have isolated him from it, at least temporarily. Good: He could have peace and quiet to work. The resulting changes took hours for him to write, even in this heightened state, interfaced with his computer. He'd long-since abandoned the use of the keyboard, thinking the changes directly onto the screen. When he was finished, his body was thick with sweat, and he felt worse than he had in months, even worse than he had that one time he got the stomach flu so serious that he'd been hospitalized.

There was already a "1" flashing on the screen, all he had to do was press enter, and all his changes would be compiled back into his own head. At least, in theory. For all he knew, that might kill him. It might erase his brain, it might replace the entire contents with the word "rubles". Just as with the read, it was untested. He shivered at the thought of what would happen when he pressed the key: There was much he would be able to remove, but not all of the Soulphage's symptoms could be erased. That was the name of the thing, a name he alone in the world knew. He would be sacrificing a great deal with the code he was about to upload, such as the memory of everything he'd done. The code was as it had been when read from his mind… something had been changing his local copy a little, but not much. When he uploaded it, every memory he'd accumulated since beginning would be erased. Everything he'd learned… both about himself and about the future of the planet, would be gone. But he was running out of time, he knew that. The quiet voice was getting louder and louder, and his limbs were going stiff. Soon he wouldn't have the strength to press the key, and the entity would just erase his near victory. It was now or never.

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Adam woke abruptly, blinking the sweat out of his eyes and pulling the now-melted wires from his scalp, taking a little of his hair with them and whimpering as he did so. His eyes jerked immediately to the mirror, expecting to find the same hideous sight he had seen before. The pus was there, dried brown in a thin layer over his skin, but there wasn't a sign of the nearly rotten skin, swollen and deep red. In its place was a swathe of pale white flesh, peeling as though newly healed from a sunburn. Gone too was the fever he had unmistakably felt, the interior reaction to the exterior rotting that he remembered had disfigured him. But his head was swimming: A feeling like mineral oil being poured into his ears, clouding all his thoughts.

He turned weakly to his Porygon2, and was shocked when he didn't need to glance at the screen of his computer (Which would've done him no good, the consoles were all charred black and inoperable). "Note! You left yourself a note! Read now, before it starts. Less disorienting if you know!" And it gestured over and over at a slip of lined paper attached to the biggest monitor. Adam approached the note, not really noticing the feeling of warmth building in his body. More than warmth. Almost electric. The jagged white half-sheet was written in his handwriting, and bore a very simple message, along with a little memory-disk attached with adhesive tape.

"Me - If you're reading this, we won! Neural-uploader worked, great job! Had to rewrite. Figured out what they're doing. Figured out how to screw it up. Didn't just save yourself, saved whole world maybe. But had to split the Adam. Sorry about that. No idea what to expect. Same as all victims of Soulphage though. Pokemon result of successful defense. Soul's way of protecting itself maybe. No time to find out. Take this disk to Saffron by moonlight. The moon will know what to do with it. Don't touch it until you're finished though: Electricity will erase contents. Hold onto your desk and you'll see what I mean."

Almost on instinct, Adam obeyed that last command, reaching out to touch the metal structure that held his now-worthless supercomputer. But before his hand could get there, a jolt of what seemed like lightning surged down his face, jumping from his hand into the desk and causing several of the monitors to flash random shades for a brief instant before going black again. Stranger, Adam felt no pain at this. "What kind of electrical discharge… wait." He looked up suddenly at Ion, narrowing his eyes. "You didn't talk just now, did you?"

Ion replied immediately, though not as quickly as Adam's body began to change. He didn't notice the slight shrinking at first, or the way his hair had gone light yellow, spreading as fur down his back. At least until he finished listening to Ion. "All of us have language. But I learned mine from humans, so I guess you can understand me even when you haven't finished yet."

The programmer very nearly replied with "finished what?", but didn't have the chance as he felt what was happening to him, and his own body answered that question for him. He felt his body changing, shrinking so rapidly now that his shirt had already slipped off, and his pants wouldn't be far behind. There was no pain, only an intense, white hot sensation, like his insides were melting and reshaping themselves. This sensation only got more intense as the bones in his arms and legs twisted and reconfigured, abruptly making it difficult for him to stand. He looked up, eyes wide as he watched his ears pulled up his head, stretching bigger and bigger, making his head look in some ways like an alligator clip used in electronics. His nose was a moist speck now, tugged out just a little as his face formed a muzzle. He whimpered at the first genuine pain during this transformation as electrical sacks formed suddenly in his face, discharging much of their energy into his own body and causing him to spasm a little. He felt a tail forming, strangely shaped and the same color as the fur on his paws, tugging on his spine even as the organs in his torso seemed to solidify themselves into whatever new configuration suited them. With his transformation, Adam became the Soulphage's first (and currently only) real survivor. But he didn't know it yet.

For a moment, there was calm, and it seemed the transformation was finally over. Adam might've taken a guess as to what he looked like then, as he'd seen a fair few pokemon like this, and could feel the shape of his own body by the clothes that covered him. But the heat in his chest had not faded… if anything, it was getting worse. Much worse, so much that it /did/ hurt now. He struggled out of what had been his clothes, standing up on shaky legs and holding himself upright by the aid of the desk, whimpering as the heat continued to grow. So much so that his body itself seemed to be glowing faintly, illuminating a room where all the lights had either burned out or right-out exploded. Ion moved as far away as he could, seeming to understand what was happening to Adam in a way Adam himself did not. The former programmer felt as though his body was an explosive, charging itself for some destructive blast. He wasn't so far from the truth.

Right as the heat became unbearable, when it felt as though his blood were boiling and his brain would fry inside his skull, came the release. It looked a great deal to all observing as though he were evolving: Though of course, Minun could not evolve. To Adam, it felt like being pulled, stretched along a tube of infinite length, having his mass briefly split between two points of nucleation, then quickly reforming into his original shape… twice? As the light faded, Adam got a brief look in the eyes of another little rodent, feeling its complementary charge to his own… then he realized what the note had meant by "splitting the Adam." Both Plusle and Minun dropped to the ground, each unconscious from the mental shock, collapsing limply onto one another. There they would stay until the evening, when the custodian found them and called animal control, and the disparate pair was caged and taken down to the Celadon Pokemon shelter.

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A/N: So… yeah. That's the prologue. Wanted the first chapter to introduce exactly what plague was being talked about in the summary, so there it is. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, and make writing this story all the more enjoyable. I was happy with the (previously) first chapter's great responses, and as a result I'm writing this 'second' chapter as quickly as I can. Sorry about being screwy with the chapter order, but it won't happen again. If anybody's already reviewed Chapter 1 and would like to review the prologue, go ahead and attach your review to the next chapter. I'll understand what you mean. Everybody else, feel free and review here. Once again, sorry for being so convoluted and confusing. Won't happen again. Chapter 2 should be coming soon… either after finals or as soon as I get a handful of reviews, whichever comes first.


	2. Out of Step

A/N: For those who started reading this story when I first posted it: yes, this is the chapter I posed as the first chapter. As I wrote my next chapter I realized to my horror its events had to take place before this, and so I changed the order, making it the first chapter and changing this into the second. For this week's new content, read the first chapter. Don't worry, updates will come in chronological order from now on. For those who are reading the story for the first time and just got here, don't worry! You're reading it in the right order. Carry right along.

Pokemon and the pokemon franchise are copyright gamefreak, Nintendo, and everybody else who might own it at this time. I do not claim any ownership thereof, and make use of their universe through the terms of fair use. Please don't sue me.

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Chapter 1: "Out of Step"

"I was neither living nor dead, and I knew into the heart of light, the silence." T.S. Elliot

I never felt such unimaginable pain as the moment I passed through the gateway, the shortcut; The place time ceased to flow. David told me that Palkia had never tread there, and so distance had no meaning. He told me Dialga could not travel there, because there it had never existed. I told him those names didn't mean anything. They were derived from ancient myth-cycles, and had no basis in reality. He asked me if I was sure. I couldn't answer.

I remember being torn from my body, like a hand pulled from a puppet. That much didn't hurt. It was painless, really. The most painless form a torture anyone has endured. Worse than the pain though, was watching everything that made me drifting away, worse because I'd seen it once before. I watched my mind blowing away in the solar wind, each ember a memory, every memory a story. I think I would've drifted away like that, the way many others have, forever been drifting sparks on the wind, or some will-of-the-wisp dancing by the light of marshfire to lure travelers away to watery graves. But Sparks was there, confident and complete in a way I wasn't. He knew what he was the way I once had, the way I didn't anymore. He'd never been anything else. Hadn't lived for more than a year like a wild animal, had a daughter… Sparks soared around me collecting all the pieces, and dutifully replacing all the ones that drifted away.

I don't know when all the pieces of my mind began to coalesce. Maybe they never did. I'll always wonder what I might've lost to the unyielding maw of the void.

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It would be somewhat inaccurate to say that Alvin walked, or that what he walked along was a "path". Likewise, it wouldn't be quite true to say that the pichu Sparks walked with him, since of course there was no gravity here except when people imagined there to be. Alvin didn't think much about that as he walked though, taking in every impossible sight. This world was a horrible reflection of the one he knew, a non-physical illusion of every human and pokemon dream. "So much for David waiting for me on the other side." He muttered to himself, or at least thought that he did, as he soared between dissonant hovering islands in the void.

There was no sound, but Sparks heard him, and protested from somewhere at the level of his shins. "If the mew could be here, I'm sure he would've been." The pichu protested. But then, Sparks had taken to David immediately, for reasons his old friend barely had any time to explain. It was only natural he would come to his defense. "I'm sure he did everything he could. He did say this way of going places wasn't safe."

Alvin nodded, but he didn't answer. The pichu was right, but that wasn't why he didn't say anything. The road he'd forged of his own hopes and preconceptions actually led somewhere. How could a pathway he built as he arrived have a destination? That it was his destination he knew without thinking about: The only piece of concrete matter he had seen thus far. It was a lake, stretching out with crystal clear water unsupported on all sides except the shore, and the dock, water gently lapping at its saturated planks. And the dock wasn't empty, either. Alvin could see a distinctly human outline sitting there, or thought he could. A man, hair gray, propped on a folding chair on the edge of the pier and holding a Super Rod in between his hands. "E-excuse me?" Alvin squeaked, taking his first tentitive step onto the sand, looking out at the old man, voice faltering as he realized that the man was actually sitting in a wheelchair, and one of his legs left no shadow in the water. Alvin was just as David had left him: He looked the same as he had his last day as a trainer, when he'd discovered the ruins of a device he shouldn't have and had become a pichu. With one exception: His hair was as yellow as Sparks's fur was now, a side effect of that transformation that had left its mark, even twenty years later. He still acted a little like a pichu, too. But nobody would fault him for that, not here.

The man answered surprisingly briskly, his voice coming into Alvin's mind in a way that wasn't spoken, but wasn't telepathic either. It was impossible to describe, impossible to imagine, even. But Alvin knew he would be seeing the impossible when he stepped outside of the world. "Twelve years, that's pretty impressive. But then, nobody's ever made it here before, so I suppose anything would be a record." He laughed weakly, the fishing rod swaying a little as he did so.

Alvin stared blankly, but the man did not turn around, and afforded him no glances of his face, no hints at who or what he might be. "I… I don't understand. Twelve years? What do you mean?"

"Twelve years between your arrival and meeting you. Relative to time in the reflection when you arrived, of course. Since the real world doesn't have time. That's why we'll never have this conversation, and why we've already finished it. But you're not ready to understand that, are you?"

Alvin had been a genius once, but complex temporal mechanics were too much for him to stomach. He shook his head, and the old man seemed to see him do it, because he kept talking. "Well I'll indulge you then. You're the first one of your kind to come here and speak to me. I know you've got stories of how angry and unpredictable I am, but they're not true. Your an intruder in my home, and I haven't killed you yet. So not a monster." Alvin nodded in agreement, sitting down on the edge of the dock and pulling Sparks protectively into his lap as the old man went on, seemingly oblivious to him now. "The Elder Ones thought they would send you into the future, didn't they? Thought they knew all there was to know about bending space. But they're blind as well as stupid."

Alvin stammered out a response, looking up suddenly. Was the Man talking about how he had gotten here, minutes ago? "B-but… how do you know what happened? David and I were alone!" No energy came from Sparks as he said this: Sparks had no body with which to shock him. But he was clearly annoyed, and Alvin hastily corrected. "Except for Sparks. But it was just the two of us! Nobody else could've seen! David would've known!"

The man chucked at being interrupted, glancing briefly over his shoulder. Alvin didn't get a good look at him, only searing red eyes, wide and unblinking behind the folds of a wispy gray face. "Your Elder friend probably knew about me: How couldn't he? They all know that every action produces a reflection, but they usually don't care. I rarely leave my tomb, and they know they couldn't survive any better here than I could there. Antimatter and matter don't mix well. We're reflections forever: The same way you can never touch what you see in a mirror. Of course I wasn't paying much attention when it happened: One sum of energy in the universe is much like the next. But when I felt you stumble into my space, I went back to see where you'd come from. An interesting pioneer. Human only by technicality: Now the first survivor outside of your universe. Or… two survivors. But I always knew there would be some pokemon who would make it here… maybe that's why you made it."

"What you're saying doesn't make any sense." Alvin said then, rather definitively. He stood up, still clutching Sparks in his arms. The pichu did not struggle, though he did shake his head a little, clearly indicating that what Alvin was about to say shouldn't be said. He said it anyway. "Sparks and I are both made of matter, so this place can't be antimatter, or we'd have mutually annihilated when we arrived. I may not be an expert on temporal mechanics, but I was a scientist back home! I understand physics! Fairly well, I like to think. You don't make any sense: What you're saying can't be true." And he folded his arms, nodding knowingly. "So tell me the truth! I'm not stupid!"

There was silence for a second, broken only by the sound of harsh reeling from the Super Rod, as though the man had given up and was collecting his line. Alvin took advantage of his silence to continue.

"And where are we, anyways? I thought this place was mostly nonphysical, so how come I have a body? How come you have one? Why is there a dock here, and why are you fishing when you know perfectly well there aren't any fish?" He took as step back then, expecting some sort of reprisal. Maybe the stranger would answer by tearing his mind apart. Whatever he was, Alvin could feel how massive he was: Powerful. Somehow, he belonged here in a way Alvin never really would.

He was right to expect a response. Alvin took another few steps back, onto the sand, as the man suddenly turned his wheelchair around, spinning it quickly. He'd been right: One of this man's legs was missing, a ragged stump fresh with blood, and some sort of thick black pus his mind could not identify. His face was harsh, wrinkled and framed by grey hair. And those eyes: Wide and staring and deep red. Nothing human in them at all. He could not tell if the man was angry or pleased with what he had said, until he leaned back in his chair and looked away, expression downcast. "You're right about one thing." He said, after a long pause. Alvin didn't move, frozen. Injured as he obviously was, he knew he had no recourse to defend himself it that became necessary. Nowhere he could run that was far enough to be safe. "None of this is real. I have a body here, a real one: But you don't, and I think it's merciful you don't have to see mine the way it really looks. Maybe if we had time: An infinite future stretching out as long as your universe continues to exist, I could show you what I look like. But… as you can see, I've felt better. No, there's nothing you can do: The outcasts don't even know they've done this to me. Probably don't even realize I exist. But damage the reflection, and you damage the original."

"But… but you said there was no time here. Why don't we have an infinity? Couldn't you… teach me anything you wanted. We could sit here for millions of years if we wanted, like you said! Of course there's time!"

But the old man was shaking his head, slowly, almost sadly. "I don't expect you to understand why yet… you're so young. Still an infant, despite all you've learned. Even if you're less of one than most of your species. I'll try and explain it in as simple a manner as you can: All life lives in the reflection, you and every other pokemon that's ever existed. None of them have developed the capacity to bypass the normal flow of time: It's heavily engrained from the moment you're born: Subconscious. Much as you could not conceive of a universe like the real one that you reflect, so your mind is forced to invent something as close as possible, or go completely mad. I don't quite understand this scene you've placed me in, but… I expect it's cultural, maybe even mythological."

Alvin's eyes widened at that last. The old man was right, this /was/ mythological! He hadn't understood the significance before, but now that it was pointed out to him, it was impossible to miss. "You're…" He muttered, pointing with one hand. "You're the fisher-king!"

Only silence answered him for a moment, the man's expression blank. That changed quickly though, and Alvin somehow knew he'd gone back at a previous time and observed his world somehow, learning what those words meant, because when he answered, his description was accurate. "The king reflects the land. If one is damaged, both suffer. A surprisingly apt conclusion for your subconscious: I'm surprised you've learned so much about me in only twelve years. But… that's the reason we don't have much time. Time might not flow here, but your mind believes it does, and dutifully marches on at the same pace as the universe you come from. You'll only be able to return to the normal flow of time at the moment your mind believes it to be. If we wait much longer, you won't have much of a world to return to. Wait longer than that, and you'll die, right along with me and the rest of the universe. Because of course: We're already dead. When your world dies, so do we." He sat up straight then, cracking his knuckles before taking both hands on the wheels of his chair. "So let's put an end to this pointless conversation. You've burned another few years talking to me, and it'll take another few getting to somewhere thin enough for you to break through." He started rolling forward, past him into the sand, and through it into… open air. "Come with me, child. Let's see what we can do about keeping the universe together."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Somewhere infinitely far away, but somewhen getting closer and closer as the seconds passed, Isabella Irongate sat in the last row of the tiny classroom, trying to seem as though she was paying attention. There were only two other students in the classroom with twenty-odd seats, one younger and one older brother, both sitting near the front. Her eyes paused as they fell on Donny, lingering briefly on his back with an expression of considerable disdain. Donny was always sucking up, no matter what adult happened to be nearby, and his brown-nosing got him more of her father's attention than she ever got. It didn't matter who happened to be around: so long as they were an adult, he was on his best behavior, and everyone had a positive word to put in about Donny to their father.

As for Isabella, or Izzy as she vastly preferred to be called, she could care less about this lesson. It didn't matter that her father had built this little school-building specifically so his children could get an education, it didn't matter to her that he'd hired a few of the best teachers in all of Kanto to be their exclusive instructors. The whole mess was dull to her. Except for the lessons about the natural world. This was the only interest she shared with her father, who had once been a trainer himself. She was the only member of her family who had the least interest in pokemon aside from him, and it was an interest her father's ample fortune supported, just as it did with every interest any of them ever had. He didn't have the time to love and care for his children, not really. But he had more than enough money to keep them entertained. Enough money to keep them well cared-for and get them anything they ever wanted. They lived on their family's private island: a small stretch of land that'd been in their family for at least three generations, the home of every modern convenience. The compound was built into the side of the unnamed island's single volcanic cone, a collection of business and leisure structures dating back as early as the island's history. Isabella enjoyed living in the compound almost as much as she enjoyed exploring many of the sealed structures that older generations of her family had once lived in. The best part about it, though, was using them as somewhere to hide. "Abra." She whisered, prodding the sleeping Psi-pokemon on the desk beside her. Ophelia twitched slightly, but it was likely the Abra had heard her thought more than felt her prodding. The eye was quizzical, and Izzy nodded in reply. With a light flash, the teacher rising a few seconds too late to try and grab her, the two of them vanished.

They reappeared moments later, a flash of light and spreading dust in one of the smaller buildings, dirt scattering across a deserted stage. This was the building she came to most often when she was getting away from her brothers. Not even the butler, the head of all her father's servants, could find her. Of course, it was also condemned: the oldest of any of the structures on the island. But Izzy was only seven, not really old enough to properly understand the danger. Her dress tore a little as she slipped past a broken display towards the piano, and her bright orange hair caught on a bit of exposed wire. With a grunt and a weak mew of pain, she pulled away, stumbling backward until she smacked into an old piano, which clanged dissonantly as she fell on her face on the nearly rotted boards. Izzy was a big girl. For a few moments, she resisted the desire to cry. That was as long as she lasted, though, and soon she was sobbing, barely sitting up, clutching the piano for support. Ophelia was always so good about bringing her somewhere safe! She didn't blame the Abra though… she was probably already asleep somewhere by her feet, already forgotten all of this. There would be no use blaming her.

Izzy wasn't sure how long she sat there, crying. If anyone asked her, they were unlikely to get a correct response. Children were, after all, very bad about telling time. What she knew, what she would remember for the rest of her life, was what stopped her. She thought it was her Ophelia at first, trying to amuse her by playing the piano… but when she looked up, there was nobody touching the keys, and Ophelia was clearly asleep next to a rusting harp with its case half-ajar. She might've thought the Psi-pokemon was somehow using telekinesis to play the keys. But if that were true, where had her Abra learned how to play? Izzy was already well into the education someone of her class "deserved", and was forcibly familiar with many classical composers and what they'd composed. As she stood up, climbing onto tiptoe to slide the cover off of the keys with both hands, she watched them play themselves in a slow, haunting rhythm she had heard several times before. Izzy climbed up onto the bench, which strained under her weight, and began to play along as best she could. She'd only played it a handful of times though, and had to strain to remember. Fortunately, the keys depressed whether or not she put her fingers on them. As she played, the music grew much worse, but also much stronger. Whatever force was playing did so with only a light touch, so faint and quiet she probably would not have heard had she not been sitting beside it. Izzy was not quiet as she played, and what had once been only a pale echo soon grew into a haunting chant, as the long unplayed instrument filled the decrepit hall with one last symphony. What Izzy did not notice, was that as she played, she also began to change.

It was a subtle change at first… her limbs got a little longer, a little of her babyfat born of indolent habits and young age melted away. The next change was a little less subtle, and it was the one that caused her to stop playing, and fall nearly onto her back on the stage. Her dress lifted up behind her, nice and slowly. At first she ignored it, thinking it Ophelia… but that thought did not last long. She stopped playing as she felt it, the stretching, lengthening sensation of her spine, a sudden heat as soft pink spread across the gradually broadening surface of her tail. That was when she fell sprawling on her back… but the music played on, as loud as it had been when she had been helping. The child whimpered faintly, genuinely afraid for the first time since she had arrived, reaching out behind her to feel the tail that was unmistakably hers. It was long… nearly as long as she was, with a slight bulge at the tip.

Fortunately, the transformation nor the music progressed much further than that. She barely felt it as nearly all the coloring pigment dissolved from her eyes, leaving them deep blue. She didn't notice, because a doorway had appeared in the piano. Izzy had no other way to describe it, a shimmering outline opening however briefly on the rotten wooden surface, glowing a deep purple that did a much better job of illuminating the dilapidated stage than the few stray rays of afternoon sun did through the broken windows. She balled one hand into a feeble fist as she saw the surface begin to ripple, knowing on some instinctual level that something was about to come through, and she wished she had the time to make it to Ophelia's resting place, and escape this sealed chamber before it did.

Her fear proved to be unfounded, because what came through the doorway was unmistakably… a pokemon trainer? He didn't look much older than her oldest brother, though he was far less well coordinated as he stepped through, tripping over a bit of fallen wood and falling face-first on the ground a few feet from her. His bright yellow hair was soon deep brown with dust, the same color as most of Izzy after falling twice to the ground.

Alvin rolled over, brushing the cobwebs from his shoulders as he did so, and sitting up, checking on what he held in his arms… a pichu! In that instant, the rest of Izzy's fear dissolved, just as the boy flipped open his pokedex for light: the doorway he'd come through had vanished, leaving the light it had provided missing. He ignored the little chunk of plastic as it spoke, staring openly at Izzy.

"Mew, the New Species Pokemon. So rare that it is still said to be a mirage by many experts. Only a few people have seen it worldwide."

"Y-you're… you're the eddie?" He asked, sliding a few feet back from her in shock. "B-but… but you're just a child! A… strange, partly-pokemon child…" What happened next he didn't expect, though his reflexes were quick enough to prevent it from hurting him. Izzy took a rusty screw in one hand and threw it at him, hard. Alvin raised an arm to protect Sparks from being struck, but what he could not intercept was the sound of her shouting.

"Half-pokemon? I wasn't half anything until just now! It's your fault! You and your magic piano and your climbing out of nowhere! I don't even care that you've got a cute pokemon! Change me back right now! My daddy… my daddy's got all sorts of people who work for him! If you don't make me better, they'll… they'll get you!"

Alvin's face fell, but at prompting from Sparks, he let the pichu down onto the stage, and began to speak as his friend darted across the stage to her. "I'm sorry, little…" He trailed off a moment, then his eyes widened a little and he continued without much interruption. "… Isabella. I promise I didn't know what He meant when He said He was making an eddy for me to land in. I thought it was a thing, not a… a person. Sorry, I… I don't understand most of what He says. I should've realized when he told me it was named Isabella." Alvin grinned sheepishly, even as Sparks gently rubbed his head on the girl's leg, which had been scratched and wounded in her fall. The gesture worked, though the child was still scowling at him.

"It's Izzy. Isabella's what my daddy calls me; nobody else." Her tail relaxed behind her as she reached out to the pichu in response, petting its head gently with one hand. "So can you fix me or not? I'm not apposed to have a tail, nobody is. If my brothers see, they'll laugh at me. They laugh at me enough for my hair."

Alvin shook his head, standing up shakily. "I wish I could, Izzy, but I didn't do it to you… do I look like I could give you a tail?" He spread his hands, palms-up. "I'm just a trainer, see? Just like…" He trailed off, eyes falling briefly on the Abra. "… just like you. I can't do anything special. And all I've got is Sparks there… but I wouldn't ask for anybody else." Alvin reached down briefly, catching the Pichu as he scurried back across the room to him, him and lifting him gently onto his shoulder.

Izzy's face was devoid of anger now, eyes wide and deep blue as nobody had ever seen them before. A wide smile spread across her face, as though Alvin had just paid her a great complement."You… you really think I could be a trainer one day? My brothers… they say I'd never make it as a trainer. They say I'm… I'm too soft, cuz' I'm a girl. That's not fair! Girls ain't soft just 'cuz they're girls! Donny just… doesn't want me to be like Dad, cuz' he's afraid I'll steal his attention away. Well he's my dad too!" Izzy whimpered then, but Alvin was on his knees beside her before she could cry, running a hand through her hair.

"Shh… Izzy, right? You're the prettiest little trainer I've ever seen. I'm sure one day you'll be even stronger than Sparks and me. You've just gotta keep learning, that's all. Keep learning more about Pokemon, because that's what makes the best trainers. You'll have to talk to your dad about the tail, though. Maybe doctors can do something about it. If he's got lots of people who work for him, I'm sure at least one of them is a doctor." Alvin stood up properly again, letting go of the now-grinning child and looking around in confusion. "Where are we, anyways?"

But Izzy did not get a chance to answer. She didn't, because at that moment, Alvin and Sparks vanished, an abrupt implosion of air not so much like a teleportation as it was a soap-bubble popping; something that shouldn't exist vanishing in a shower of purple and green sparks.

A/N: If it's not too much trouble, I'd petition anyone reading this to write a review, even if it's just a few lines. It's the reviews that keep me writing, same as ever. Soon as I get a handful or two, the sooner I write my next chapter.


	3. Operational Prerogative

Chapter 2: "Operational Prerogative"

Over the next five years, Isabella would never forget her clandestine meeting with a trainer who had not, could not have, existed. For some time afterword, her brothers would mock her insistence on the young man named Alvin that had caused her irrevocable transformation into… whatever she was. She was surprised her brothers had not mocked what she had become, but whatever reprieve they'd given her her father had more than made up for. His vast wealth brought her before the best doctors in the world, who twice amputated her tail, surgically restoring Izzy to her formerly human state. In both cases, it only took about two months for the tail to regrow: a painful process to say the least and a complete bafflement to medical science.

Izzy did not well understand what the doctors said when they spoke of her "remarkable regenerative properties" in hushed voices, quietly harvesting ordinary cells from her that would eventually grow into secret stem-cell lines. Izzy did not know what it meant that she was resistant to most types of radiation, or that she didn't /technically/ have any human genes left. And she didn't much care. After about a year spent solidly within the private hospital on her island, she screamed for release, screamed and screamed and screamed until her father had heard about it, and gave the order that all study of her should cease. Were she the daughter of any other man, that very well might not have been enough, but Mr. Irongate was not to be defied: even the several criminal organizations that knew about Izzy didn't try. "I just wanna be a girl again." Izzy had pleaded with her father over the phone, before he gave the order to release her. "I don' care about if I'm pokemon or not just so long as I can play outside again."

Izzy paid no mind to the cameras the medical staff insisted on installing in her room "for observational purposes," and didn't much care about the bi-weekly checkups: In her mind, anywhere that wasn't the hospital was freedom to her. Life quickly returned to "normal" after that, with a few minor changes. For starters, Izzy's academics improved dramatically despite her year's absence from classes. Math, science, language… it seemed the child had become gifted at every subject, though not nearly enough to put her on the level of "genius." This she noticed mostly by the remarkably short time it took her to complete homework that occupied her brothers for hours. Though her instructors repeatedly asked her to skip grades, she refused, afraid (correctly) that doing so would bring a heavier workload and cut into her free time. What Izzy didn't notice, and what nobody could ever have noticed, was that her personality was developing slightly contrary to what it might've otherwise. With a slightly changed appearance had come a greatly improved creativity and resourcefulness, as well as a childish playfulness that flew in spite of her brothers' sincere attempts to upset her. In all cases, these attempts were in vain.

What didn't change much though, was Izzy's body. She'd grown a tail, and her eye color had changed, but it seemed that was where her pokemon features would stop. If anything, it seemed even her human features weren't changing quite as much as they should. Though she was now twelve years old, and had the intelligence and maturity to match, she was as far on the small end of body size as it was possible to go, looking more like an average 10-year-old than a growing girl who should be entering puberty soon. This was her brother's mainstay as far as insults went, and they routinely called her various immature names. This was one of the few ways they could actually penetrate Izzy's blind optimism: As every parent knows, young children are very sensitive to being talked about that way.

The girl occupied her time chiefly wandering the unsettled parts of her island, spending increasing amounts of time with wild pokemon as she made the gradual transition from pokemon enthusiast to pokemon trainer. As in all her interests, her father's wealth sponsored her training, granting her access to the best tools and talent for the job, though she flat-out refused to use pokemon he had bought for her, insisting that she should catch everything she intended to use herself. What she /really/ wanted to do was leave the island and travel across Kanto, just like all the stories she read or heard on the news talked about children doing. Had it not been for her… deformity… she probably would've been allowed, too. But while her eldest brother was allowed to go, she was forced to stay behind and be content with what she could find on the island, spending much of her time alone in a sort of childish protest.

That was where she was now, alone on the very peak of her island, lying on her back and looking up at the stars. She was dressed much as any young trainer might dress, garbed in the latest absurd neon fashions that seemed all the more absurd by the blatantly pokemon tail protruding from behind her. Her belt had only two pokeballs on it, one of which was the currently empty one that would've housed Ophelia, had she not been standing behind her, ensuring that her master didn't slip down the uneven volcanic slope and into the extinct cone beside them. Extinct, but still an almost sheer drop hundreds of feet into the empty magma chamber. Izzy came here often, mostly because it was the one place on the island she wasn't allowed to go. Ophelia's teleport made it impossible for her guardians to prevent her, and they'd mostly given up, content that she hadn't tried using that tactic to reach the mainland.

It wasn't as though there was very much to /do/ up here, Izzy just thought that was where she felt most comfortable. Only much later, when all mankind was engulfed in a war that threatened to swallow the planet, would she realize why. The girl wasn't /really/ watching the stars. It wasn't as though she hadn't seen them all thousands of times now, learned their positions out of sheer boredom and a talent for memorization. But what was that feeling, like her hair standing on end? Her tail was frozen now, unmoving. _Something's coming through._ She thought, without knowing where that thought came from. She wasn't wrong. With a similar effect to that she had seen years earlier, purple light poured from one of the rocks, lighting up the night all around her with visions into a universe where no matter could (or indeed, had ever) existed.

Unlike the last time, Izzy didn't sit there speechless, but rushed to the edge, not noticing as her hair shimmered a moment, and changed to bright pink the same shade as her tail. Didn't notice as her ears were stretched and pulled, reshaping themselves into their feline counterparts atop her head. She didn't notice, because she was tugging with all her might on the hand that had emerged, struggling to pull it free into reality. "Ophelia, help me!" She pleaded, and her Kadabra obeyed. A faint blue shimmer appeared around her, though it seemed powerless to effect the partially formed entity that was emerging, giving her the strength she needed to yank the figure onto the rough rocky surface.

With a cough, the newcomer rolled over, sitting up. Izzy recognized him at once, not just because of his appearance, but because of the dust and detritus of her family's music hall still clinging to his clothes. "A-Alvin?" She asked, hastily straightening herself up, trying to look as presentable as possible. She mentally cursed herself for that a second later. Had she forgotten how furious she was with this trainer? So she hastily continued. "It's been… it's been years! How could you just leave like that! I… everybody thought I was crazy, and… and I spent a whole year stuck in a hospital…" She struck him then, kicking him as hard as she could manage with her shoe. The boy had lifted his pichu into his arms, but she didn't care… she was too old for that to work on her this time!

"I'm… I'm sorry…" He croaked, obviously disoriented. And why shouldn't he be? He looked exactly as she remembered him, not one detail out of place. His shirt was still creased, his pants were still dirty, and his backpack still hung by only one strap from his shoulders, just as it had several years previously. Less observant girls might've missed or dismissed details like that, but Izzy wasn't about to. More than that, she was even cognizant enough to guess at what might be going on. Not that it was a particularly insightful guess. "It's only been a few seconds for you, hasn't it? When you vanished last-time…" The trainer hastily nodded, and Izzy relaxed a little. "So… I guess I can't really be mad at you. Because… I... you didn't seem to want to vanish."

Alvin shook his head again. "Not really… I thought I was coming back to reality for good when He showed me the way here, but… apparently not. When I got back, he only told me I had to force my way back as soon as I could… so I did. But it only took me a few seconds, I thought! Just had to get up to where you were. But it doesn't look like a few seconds…" He got hastily to his feet, looking down at her with folded arms. Sparks wiggled free, dropping to the ground and standing just beside one of his legs in a slightly protective, suspicious way, eyes never leaving Izzy's tail. "How long has it been, exactly? Three years?"

"Five." Izzy insisted, voice flat and annoyed. It was obvious why she might be.. she got this sort of thing from most everyone these days. Everybody thought she was younger than she was. Not that she saw many in the way of new people. Mostly doctors. "But you're here, so… you wanna battle?"

Alvin had to narrow his eyebrows a little at that request. Was she serious? Here they were standing alone on the edge of a sheer cliff on one end and a steeply decending slope on the other, in the middle of the night, and she wanted a pokemon battle? "Not here." he insisted, mostly for Sparks's sake. As eager as he was to test the effectiveness of his living genetic engineering, he was unwilling to commit to such a dangerous location. "Later, I promise."

Sparks was indignant. "You really think a little kid can beat me?" He asked, defensively. "It wasn't so hard for me in there as it was for you… I'm ready to fight!"

Izzy's face brightened, but Alvin repeated his objections, shaking his head again. "I know you're strong, Sparks, but I don't want any pokemon getting hurt. We're on the edge of the world up here! A battle can wait until we get to somewhere stable. And we can talk on the way, even!" He bent down, scratching behind the Pichu's ears, before taking him back into his arms.

The little girl, meanwhile, was watching, eyes wide with amazement. "You can… understand him?" She asked, all disappointment about the battle they weren't going to have seeming to fade in an instant. But such it was with the attention spans of small children, even clever ones. Alvin nodded, though didn't elaborate, so Izzy pressed him. "How? I look more like a pokemon than you do, and I can't understand them, even with years of trying!"

Alvin shrugged. "It's a long story, Izzy. But… if I vanished last time, I probably shouldn't waste it explaining it all. Ask my daughter: she's come out with the whole thing. Wrote a book about it. Although I'm not sure how true most people think it is… Erica's her name. You should be able to look her up. But… why don't we head back down. I don't really think staying up here is such a good idea…" Or maybe he was just afraid of heights. His eyes were sure moving fast enough. But for a ground-dwelling creature, he could scarcely be blamed for it.

"Erica… Tucker?" Izzy repeated, eyes slowly widening. "You can't be her father, cuz'… cuz' she's alot older than you!" Alvin was confused by this reply… not because he had forgotten what David had done to his apparent age, but because Izzy knew about his daughter. How could they have possibly met? On the other hand, how much did he really know about Izzy? Did he know anything other than her name? He didn't have to ask her though, because Izzy noticed the look of confusion on his face and answered what he hadn't asked. "Everybody important knows Erica… daddy told me about her. Said she was building something that would save the world someday." She nodded, obviously quite satisfied with herself.

Alvin raised his eyebrows, looking extremely interested. "Really?" He spoke as though indulging a child, eyes wandering a little. "How's that? What's she building that's gonna save the world?"

Izzy answered, though he did not hear it. Just as he had once before, with a sound like an implosion and a shower of purple sparks, Alvin was gone.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fifteen years previous…

To say that all members present at the meeting saw things differently wouldn't be quite true. Though it was not a physical meeting: Indeed, it's members were spread fairly evenly across the globe. Some of the strongest-minded might have seen the gathering as it really was: Collections of dispersed consciousness. But many, some of them by choice, imposed on the meeting an image that made it easy for them to understand. Logan knew that the scores of so called "legendary" species here probably saw everyone as whatever they were, and heard them in voices that were easiest for them to understand. She knew, though hadn't actually seen, that all those who weren't naturally telepathic had met in one of a few places on the continents, where somebody who was would help connect them with the group. A physical gathering of the entire planet's legendaries would've been nearly impossible to orchestrate, particularly given so many of them had responsibilities to specific locations. This was the solution, same as they had hundreds of thousands of years ago, when a previous generation of legendary pokemon had perceived their planet threatened.

Logan was not unlike all those other legendaries, except that instead of in some deserted field, or in the middle of the forest, she saw a huge political building, with a round table in the center, and higher levels rising all around. There were perhaps two hundred people in the room… all of them human, though few of them would actually look that way, or ever had. Those that sat closest to the table were those most vocal and most powerful, the half-step mutation species that weren't all that far from the species that had called the meeting. The further out you got, the more dominant instinct was in the minds of those who sat. Logan could barely make out the figures she knew to be the legendary birds, somewhere on the highest tiers, and she couldn't help but be grateful they wouldn't be too vocal during the meeting. The table itself had fourteen chairs, each of which was currently occupied. All of these figures were truly mew, Logan knew. All but two. Her eyes jumped first to the Eldest, a strong and powerful looking man with bright blonde hair, big blue eyes, and a sort of force that went beyond a well-built body. Celeste sat on one side of him, a tall woman who'd joined their ranks accidentally, one of two here who had ever stepped outside the normal flow of time. Something about her eyes didn't strike Logan as quite right, but she'd always been friendly enough to her. On her right sat Amie, the youngest mew at the time Logan herself had ascended, looking quite a bit less confident than Celeste or the Eldest, keeping a protective hand constantly on the shoulder of the girl on her left. Aiden looked scarcely ten years old, and her hair was an unnatural pink: A sure sign of someone who hadn't had much practice changing shape. Logan hadn't had much contact with either of these, and knew only that Amie had once been some sort of inventor or archeologist, and discovered some artifact that'd changed her. Aiden was her first (And currently only) child. Adopted, like so many others. On the Eldest's right hand sat David, one of the three males at the table. He didn't look nearly as strong or as confident as the Eldest did, but just as resolved, his hair black and somewhat disheveled, and his appearance somewhat older than Logan herself, though not quite as mature as Celeste or the woman on his right, a stern looking and unremarkable figure who looked almost bored with all that was going on. Beside her was a face distinctly more friendly, a face she knew much better than the others all around her. Like Logan, Bit's hair was bright pink, but her eyes were green instead, and she was slightly older. On Logan's other side sat a pair of what amounted to children, Logan's most recent recruits to the species. Both had been human, and both were now children, Miya the older and scrawnier of the two, and Jamie holding lightly onto her "sister's" arm for support in this strange and seemingly threatening environment. Logan reached out to reassure the young girl, rubbing her hair a little with one of her hands.

Miya, meanwhile, was glaring at her. "Keep your hands to yourself, Jamie!" She whispered harshly, trying to look as dignified as eight years old could look. "This is my first time with everybody! I don't want people to treat me like a kid forever!"

This brought a tearful whimper to the face of the child, whom Logan quickly took into her lap, bouncing the five-year-old up and down until she calmed down, giving one harsh look to Miya. "You should treat your little sister better." She muttered, under her breath. "Just because she depends on you…"

Miya didn't answer, looking down with a slightly guilty expression. Logan reached out and gave her head a pat too, ruffling it up a little in her way of saying she wasn't mad at her. "Remember, you two are supposed to be on your best behavior. This is a really important meeting… the only one there's been since before almost everyone here was born."

"I knowed…" Jamie muttered from her lap, rolling over to face her and reaching out towards her face, leaning close to whisper in her ear. "Buh' there's so many scary people here! I just wanted Miya to sit closer to me." Logan nodded, and brought Jamie's vacant chair closer to Miya's, lifting her back up and sitting her down beside her sister. Despite Miya's complaints, she didn't seem to mind. She was far too stubborn to show it, but Logan could sense she was a little intimidated by all this herself. Unlike Jamie though, Miya probably was more frightened by what a meeting like this /implied/. What was so important as to bring them together for the first time in thousands of years? The little Jamie satisfied, humming quietly to herself as she played with her hands, Logan returned to her silent survey of the guests. Another young mew, though older than Miya, sitting beside Jamie. Beside her, Logan's only biological daughter, Tami, sitting much closer to the boy on her left than she was Logan or any of the other children. Tami had matured quite a bit, though she looked young compared to the man she sat beside. He was younger than the Eldest, much younger. Not much older than Logan herself, except that his mind brought him power only the Eldest himself could dream of. His figure was much more lithe than the Eldest, with short black hair and wide grey eyes that never looked up. This figure had no name, for he'd never taken one. What brief glances the Eldest did give him were clearly upset, as though he were shocked this man had dared to show up. The girl on his other arm, practically hanging there, seemed glad of it there, her face a wide smile and her clothing much more playful than formal. This mew /did/ have a name, though the Eldest had technically stripped her of it. Korina had saved the entire planet, once. Saved it from the man she was holding onto now, completely without shame, and positively daring somebody to call her on it. Nobody did.

"I think that's everyone." The eldest said suddenly, causing the babble all around the room to die to complete silence, as all eyes fell on the center of the room, and on the species who it was hoped could prevent the coming destruction. "We've waited for Also as long as we can. We'll have to start without her."

Celeste spoke up from beside him, smiling ruefully. "Even the end of the world couldn't make her talk to us. Funny way of caring about the planet." A few light chuckles circulated through the room, but not many. This meeting was far too serious to be amused about a very important somebody not showing up. Logan herself had never actually /Met/ this Also person, having only heard stories about her. The Eldest barely acknowledged Korina: for Also he wouldn't even do that.

"I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone why we're here." He said, standing up and addressing everyone. His voice carried without a microphone, echoing through the huge chamber as only a nonphysical voice truly could. "Many of you will have sensed it coming just as my kin did. But for those of you who haven't…" He gestured to Miya with one hand. The young mew considered speaking before all those assembled a great honor, but it was an honor that should've gone to Bit, by right. She knew more about what was coming than anyone, having spent long hours listening to the moonlight. But it was no secret that the Eldest wasn't too fond of her either.

With great pride, Miya stood up on her chair, and Jamie reached up with her as she did, clinging to the closest of Miya's legs as her elder "sister" spoke. Miya recited from one of the oldest stories, an ancient myth that was more figurative than literal truth. Most who heard it would know that, though Miya herself might not. She'd spent hours memorizing it for this exact moment.

"Only three star-generations since the rending, two brothers met together by a great river, the greatest that had ever been. 'Look at all this beautiful life.' The first brother said, gesturing at the forest around them that had grown up from the Tree. 'In our folly we birthed an accident, but the accident might one day be greater than ourselves.' The other brother was much older and wiser than the first, being one of the architects that had helped build the tree before any other life had been born. For eons he had listened to the echos of the dying moon, and from it he had learned much that was forbidden. 'It isn't beautiful to me.' The second brother said, striking dead a passing pokemon and taking it apart before the first brother. 'See how imperfect this life is. It's our stain, our guilt that it exists. I see no beauty in shame.' The first brother wept when he saw what his older brother had done, but this only earned him the ire of his older brother, who attacked him at once. 'You are as imperfect as they!' He exclaimed, and in his wrath, quickly killed his weaker sibling. And so the elder brother was alone with the moonlight again, and by the light of his brother's corpse he listened, drinking in the forbidden knowledge that came to him from the void."

Miya smiled proudly at this nearly perfect recitation, and Logan muttered some encouraging words in her ear before she sat down. Before she could, though, another figure stood, the only one in the entire room who was not completely pokemon. Logan probably would've seen Erica as completely human, the same as her kin. Would've, had she not seen what Erica really looked like… a fierce woman with bright orange hair and sharply pointed ears somewhere atop her head. Behind her was a rubbery tail tipped with lightning, a lightning that was not missing from her eyes. "That's a disgusting story, and I still don't know what it means. What's so dangerous about that?" Many cold eyes were drawn to her direction, though just as many were amused. As one of the few humans who knew about this collective group, Erica was here acting as humanity's representative. She would be permitted to relay what she learned to them only if the Imperial Council allowed it.

The disinterested mew, the oldest besides the eldest and the one Logan had never manage to extract a name, stood up as well, glaring at Erica with the coldest glare in the room. From her expression, it was clear what she thought of humanity. And Logan knew how scathingly she thought of them… even after all this time she had never replied to anything Logan said. "If the ignorant primate wanted everything spelled-out, she could've just asked. Please… allow me." Logan wasn't the only one glaring at her, either. For a brief moment, her eyes met with the nameless man, and they shared the tiniest fraction of a smile. "Before most pokemon species evolved, there were the legendaries, left over from the Fall. Many of them realized how stupid they'd been in constructing what you would foolishly term the Tree of Beginning, but a few still believed what their ancestors had. They wanted to be what they had been before we became physical life. But to do that, the universe also had to be a singularity. Do you know what a singularity is?" She asked in a way that was clearly derogatory, like a preschool teacher asking one of her students if she knew how to use the potty by herself. Her smirk did fade just a little when Erica nodded, but not by much. As if to spite her, she answered the question anyway. "All matter existing at once… the way it was before the Rending. In other words, the annihilation of the universe. Many of us became what we now call the Excarchs… we're not sure exactly how many. These beings were immensely powerful, but they could not end the universe the way they wanted. So they decided to end life here instead. This was the only planet they had, after all… and every voice that different from the unity of the whole was an abomination to them. Imperfect. They had no respect for insignificant life." And her eyes made it clear exactly who she thought that was. "They formed huge armies of all the pokemon they could. They even created a brand new type of pokemon to fight us better: Dark. But the Firstborn were a powerful race, and they were more numerous. With the help of their great inventions, like Regigigas, they defeated the Excarchs and banished them forever to the space beyond the universal expansion from where their power had come from." She sat down again, folding her arms in smug satisfaction. Miya was glaring at her too… not because of anything specific that she had said, but because she had upstaged her. Miya was supposed to explain all that!

"But it… wasn't forever, was it?" One of the nearby voices said. One of the legendaries not actually sitting by the table, but close-by. "Because they've come back before… and they're coming back now."

"Correct." That was the eldest again, taking back control. "We know of at least five recorded accounts of the Excarchs returning from the void en-masse, and many more little incursions banished on a much smaller scale. The last one was over a million years ago, though. Which is why I've called this meeting." He glanced once around the room, obviously reluctant to say what he was about to. "We aren't ready." There was uproar at this comment, but he ignored it, speaking onward. Soon the room quieted enough to hear him. "… generations had the means to protect themselves. But the alliances are gone now, and the greatest of our invention are in ruin. Even if we had them, we don't have enough mew to crew even one of the Arceus Motherships. The last invasion was repelled with /three/ of them, and still thousands of us died. We don't have thousands anymore." He stood up, gesturing around at all the other species. "You have felt the dwindling with us. Our friends are too few. A war with the Excarchs is a war that cannot be won."

Logan's heart seemed to sink out of her chest as she heard this. The Eldest… her teacher and protector for all these years… how could he speak so resolutely of their demise? Logan had known the odds against them, but she had also counted on the eldest coming up with a miracle. He always did! And now she regretted insisting on bringing Jamie. She didn't have to look at the girl's face to see she was probably in tears. For the second time during the meeting, it seemed the nameless figure across the table was thinking as she did. "Yet, if the situation was completely hopeless…" Mewtwo said, addressing the Eldest directly for the first time in history. "…this meeting would not have been called. So you must have a solution."

The Eldest did not respond to Mewtwo, or at least, he tried to make it seem as though he weren't, addressing the assembled crowd as though he had not been interrupted. "Instead of fighting them for the earth, I propose we let them have it. My kin and I have recently amassed the energy to reopen the gateways. There are several habitable planets… we should pick one and start anew. Take the greatest number of pokemon with us we can… and make it seem to the Excarchs as though we've left them the planet. We cannot win a war… but if we all work together, we can seal the space behind us." If saying that the war could not be fought had provoked outrage, than this remark produced a war. Few of the greater legendaries had the presence of mind to understand much outside their ordinary instincts. Protecting their territory and the like. These words they took as a threat on their territory, and their cries were the loudest. The first to voice their objections cogently did not come from the stands, though.

It came from Logan. "But what about mankind?" She demanded, standing up at once. "What about the pokemon we can't take with us? Are we just going to leave them here? The way it sounds, the Excarchs are our fault. Our problem. Adrian, do you really mean to leave them all to die?" She tried to hide it, but she was crying a little, unable to resist the impulse completely. She turned slightly to one side so Jamie and Miya could not see her face. Being told all life was doomed was bad, but having someone she respected, somebody she _loved_ even, say that her entire species would be left to the void hurt her that much more. It was a betrayal. Miya did not seem as effected by it, but Jamie was definitely crying again. Who could blame her?

"What /about/ humans?" The woman who had spoken earlier spoke up, addressing Logan as coldly as she had addressed Erica. "It isn't as though they stand a chance of helping us. The same way lesser pokemon have to be sacrificed so that the rest can live… if we flee the planet, we can rebuild. Maybe someday even retake earth. But if the Excarchs find an empty planet, they're going to find a way to follow. If humans are here, we can let the Excarchs believe they wiped us out, and they won't come looking for us. It's the only way we'll be safe."

The Eldest spoke up after her. "Indeed. Leaving them behind is a regrettable necessity. We'll bring a few… enough to let their species continue on. But the bulk must be here when the Excarchs arrive. And even if we thought they would be content to take an empty planet, where would the energy come from to evacuate a species as numerous as theirs? Wouldn't as much of that energy as possible be better spent saving what pokemon we can? They're our responsibility more than humans are, and your friend is proof of that." He eyed Erica narrowly. "How long has she been pressuring us to stop interfering with human society? Now we will. They can have their peace, and a few years to make peace with the universe. And we'll be able to ensure life survives elsewhere. If nothing else, you all must understand that. Our duty is as much to the uncountable trillions of the unborn as it is to those currently living. We cannot set the one above the other just because they're closer to us in space-time."

So back and forth the discussion went, between several at the table who supported the Eldest's plan of relocation, and those who did not. It could've been hours the debate raged on, or maybe it was a few minutes. Then the black haired man stood up, and spoke so quietly, so calmly, that the entirety of the chamber had to go silent to hear him. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn't have, but…even the Eldest didn't dare speak now, though if a look could kill, Logan knew the speaker would've died several times already by his hand. "I'm staying." He said, speaking slowly and simply. "I don't know how the planet's caretakers can so easily abandon it. There is no way to evacuate it: A newly colonized world could not support the life here even if we had a way of getting every individual to safety. So we have to stay and fight. It doesn't matter if I have to do it alone…" And with those words, he vanished, causing Korina to stumble, catching herself awkwardly on the edge of a chair before vanishing too.

Logan stood up too, before anyone else could say anything. An expression of shock quickly made its way to the Eldest's face, but she didn't care. "I think we should stay too. I know how bad it looks, but… mewtwo's right. We can't abandon all this we're sworn to protect. So maybe things aren't like they were in the past… who cares? So we don't have all the things the legends say… we have one thing those past generations didn't!" She gestured at Erica, who stood up and tried to look as dignified as she could. "We've got friends! Friends who aren't just wild pokemon living in the hills somewhere… friends who we can make understand what's going on. There might only be hundreds of us altogether, but… there's billions of them! If even a fraction of those numbers were on our side, we couldn't lose! Think about it… the Exarchs always came to our world expecting it to be mostly empty, just a few wild pokemon here and there to help us when we're near enough to ask… what will they do when they see an army?"

"An army of humans." Celeste cut in, speaking up suddenly. "Even if you manage to get them to believe us about the danger, what good can they be, really? Pokemon trainers will help, but there aren't enough of them. And as flashy as their human weapons are, they're just toys. Their ships won't even slow the Exarchs down. Far too primitive to be of help." The sound of approval echoed from behind her, as all the legendaries who had encountered enough human technology to know spoke in agreement. "Don't get me wrong, Logan, I think you're right to want and stay, it's noble of you. But I don't see how it's possible. There's nothing noble about suicide."

For the second time, Erica spoke up, glaring at Celeste before standing up on her chair so that all assembled could see her. "I know all of you don't think much of humans… some of us have acted in ignorance to do awful things to you. Despoiled your habitats and ruined your nests and polluted huge sections of land. I wasn't invited here to lie to you about what humans were like. But to say that was all mankind was isn't fair to us! We've been great friends to pokemon since our earliest days! We've captured them, yes, but it isn't fair to call it slavery. Pokemon are our companions, our friends. We've made mistakes… but those mistakes were made in ignorance. All of you operate in this secret world, hidden from most of us… how can we be blamed for interfering with a world we don't know about! You said that this is the smallest remainder of what has existed for millions of years… I don't know if this culture has really survived that long, but… mine hasn't! Modern man has only been around for a few hundred years, and look at all we've done! Now I know how you all think about it, but… it's our planet too! If we knew what was going on, people would want to help defend it, I know they would. Maybe our technology isn't as impressive as yours, but that doesn't mean we couldn't be helpful!"

Bit spoke up then, a quiet, calculating voice free of the passion that clearly burned in what Erica and Logan were saying, though her expression wasn't half as cold as some of the others. "Human technology might be primitive, but it doesn't have to be. It isn't all that different than what the earliest Firstborn used once, just earlier and less developed. With our help… thirty years is more than enough time to prepare. At the rate they advance, they might not even need our help in that much time."

"Help them?" The second-oldest at the table practically screamed at Bit, who was a little taken-aback, but didn't falter. "They were dangerous enough when all they had were bows and swords! What's to stop them from using all our help to exterminate us? At least with what the Eldest is suggesting only the illusion of our extermination will be left behind!"

"They won't hurt us." Logan cut in. Suddenly, she was standing beside Erica, who towered a full foot taller than she was. That didn't stop Logan from taking the woman's hand, and holding up hers for the whole room to see. "I've been in close contact with humans since the day I stopped being one of them. They might be a little primitive, and they might be a little ignorant, but they're our only hope for the future. I for one refuse to accept a future where we're driven off our own planet, and we leave billions of its inhabitants to die… that's unacceptable!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Holy crap, talk about a long chapter. That's definitely some sort of record. As usual, reviews are greatly appreciated, and will speed along the posting of the next chapter. Though next week is finals, and I don't expect to post anything until after that… one never knows! A huge thanks to all my reviewers so far. I'm gonna go with one of my old habits now, the dreaded... Review responses!

Another Interested Reader : Close. The fisher king is actually taken from Artherian Legend, but since that stuff was drew very heavily on the bible. There are some biblical allusions I've been using throughout, though... try and catch 'em all!

Kirby Oak: No, research fellow has nothing to do with my current place of schooling, but is a general term to describe someone intrusted with research by a university. Yeah, what the government is doing is a little fishy. But then again, maybe they're doing it for everybody's own good... in any case, you may be looking forward to Adam's next apperance, but I'm sure he isn't. Freakin pound? Ouch.

YukitheRedFox : Surreal is the feel I was going for for chapter one, although future chapters will have different feels. and yeah, I did take a brief editing look at the chapter before I published it (thanks, Kirby Oak), but I'll never catch everything, and I am sorry if what errors persist make things difficult.

Tsaukpaetra: He really should've, yeah. I guess nobody's released anything like subversion for the human brain. I'm sure Adam would be getting right on with that, except that now he's in a cage somewhere downtown, and has other problems. Or... they, I guess. I dunno what pronouns to use for two of the same person! X.x Twins. The twins are down at the pound. Let's go with that.

Reno : Creepy, huh? I guess that's what I'm going for. Future chapters probably didn't have that as much, though.

DarkPokemonLover : You didn't seem to understand what was going on nearly as well as I expected readers to, particularly since most of the questions you asked were answered by the chapter. You may want to go and re-read it, I bet you'll understand alot more. I can hardly blame you though, given english isn't your first language. I know I use alot of really figurative and non-literal. I did try and narrow that stuff down in future chapters, though.

Once again, I'm extremely grateful for everyone who reviewed. You're the reason I keep writing, primarily.


	4. Dissonant Harmonies

Chapter 3: "Dissonant Harmonies"

Eleven hours later, the meeting had finally reached its conclusion. Word somehow reached Mewtwo, who returned to help draft more precise plans as everyone in attendance contributed their knowledge and experience constructing a plot that would, with exceptional luck, save the planet without the need to abandon it. A precise timeline was written, names of important people were compiled… and over the course of a remarkably short time, most of the planning that would take place was completed. Erica became the most important voice at the conference, and what she said was taken very seriously now. It was her species, after all, that would be largely responsible for what would become of Earth.

But almost everyone was gone now, the hall was dead silent. Had it really existed, it would probably be in shambles by now, litter covering the floor and temperature lifted well into uncomfortable by the sheer heat of all the bodies. The eldest alone remained sitting at the empty table, maintaining a global link that nobody was using anymore. Or… almost nobody. "I see you back there." He said, quite calmly, looking up towards the highest row of seats. Human eyes would not have been able to make out shapes at such a distance, but this was not a real building, and the Eldest wasn't trying to use his eyes. Distance seemed equally illusory here, as the figure responded by transporting immediately to stand across the table from the Eldest, her arms gently folded in a peremptory manner. She was dressed conservatively, and had an appearance many humans would've recognized. She was an older woman, and probably would've been leaning on a cane if any of this were real. Still, much about her had remained inhumanly young. Many in the public suspected her powers somehow helped keep her dark-blue hair so long and healthy, and some thought they were what turned her eyes deep red. It wasn't as though either of those colors were natural, and Sabrina's family was much too well-respected in the psychic community for one of their own to use dye to alter their appearance artificially.

"I'm surprised you didn't eject me." She said, after a brief pause. The eldest only smiled lightly, and she continued. "I don't believe /you/ wouldn't have noticed me. If that were true, I'd petition for you to be replaced."

"The position's open." The Eldest said, leaning back in his chair, feet propped up on the table. His eyes reflected how upset he really felt about all of this. "I've been sick of it for a century already. I'm sure they'd all accept you. David would be a little disappointed, but she'll understand. Brave, but she could never lead the planet through an invasion."

Sabrina sat down, relaxing a little. "You know I couldn't either. Maybe better than David… but there very nearly wasn't going to be a resistance. I expected better from you… Eldest giving up on earth? Even with the odds as bad as they were, I admit I didn't believe it at first. If your species were known for its humor, I would have suspected a joke. And here you nearly had everybody's vote when that little girl… your handpicked replacement, too… stood up and argued with you." She chuckled, though all humor had vanished from the Eldest's face. "Wishing you'd left her human, maybe?"

The eldest didn't answer, glaring stubbornly back at Sabrina. After a silent moment, he spoke. "I gave up on Logan succeeding me decades ago." He said, slowly. "When I found her, I told her one of the reasons I'd done it was so that she could help us procreate. She's had much too much enthusiasm on that mission, and not nearly enough of what I wanted to teach her-"

"You don't think helping to find new recruits to a dying species is important?" Sabrina interrupted, though she had long since broken eye contact. Not even Sabrina, the greatest human Psychic who ever lived, could meet those eyes for very long.

"Of course it's important! And it's even more important for us to get a self-sustaining and genetically diverse population again. Genetic engineering can only solve the problems of inbreeding for so long. But it's more than that. Logan was never discriminating enough. I'll admit she sometimes had a point… I had never considered artificial life would ever amount to anything more than they'd been for us before the fall. Miya was a stretch… she was so old when she finally passed those tests, much older than our recruits usually are. And what did we get with her? Stagnation. That was bad enough… but not enough for Logan. She needed to go and find someone who wasn't even prepared to make the transition. I hadn't ever seen a younger mew… like some twisted premature birth. I was thoroughly astounded when Logan told me she'd taught the runt to fly. What good would a mew like that be against the Exarchs? She'll probably survive us all… they'll spare her for a lark, I'm sure. A testimony to why we lost, after millions of years of killing them."

Sabrina's eyes narrowed, and she looked back briefly. "So you think that little accident should've been left alone to die? Let gravity do the killing… humans find her, and she's some horrible accident they'll never understand?" There was a little anger in her voice, very subtle. Just the lightest touch of harshness, like a public debate between a pair of politicians from different parties. "How'd you end up so cold? First Jamie, then the whole planet. It… it couldn't have been me, could it? Innocent little girl: Best you'd ever seen, and you couldn't win her? All these years, nothing. That primitive little body of hers is starting to fall apart now… soon she'll be dust, and still you can't get her to agree. I must be quite the conundrum. Or maybe I'm an example of how you think humanity has failed. The way we won't recognize what you see as simple logic."

There was no anger in the Eldest's face, despite being insulted. Just silence, for several long moments. Sabrina might be old, but this intellect was far older. All of modern society had arose during his lifetime. He'd seen civilizations wiped away. He'd seen technology develop from simple metal-smelting. He'd watched as the last generation of mew slowly rotted away to nothing, leaving only the few children they'd had behind. He was one of those, one of a very few. Much too few. "I don't understand you." He eventually said, quite reluctantly. "Despite seeing all your memories, your thoughts… unless you've somehow managed to discover a way to hide them from me. Maybe you have." He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes weakly. "I might not understand you, but I do know you. Human technology won't be advanced enough to keep you from dying of old age before the war even begins. Even if you /did/ somehow manage to survive that long, would you really be able to contribute with that frail shell?" He shook his head, smiling, sneering back. "You won't say no for much longer. And somehow… I doubt you'll end up like Miya."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fifteen years after the meeting that decided the fate of the world had drawn to a close, Alvin pounded on the invisible barricade between the worlds, cursing louder than he had in his life. This accomplishment was most impressive due to the trainer's complete lack of lungs, or any sort of body. "Damnit!" He finally screamed, relaxing against… something. It looked like a piece of the volcanic mountain he'd just been standing on, twisted and pulled and stretched as only this reality could do. Did this place have a name? He remembered David had said it, but much of his memories had drifted away when he first came to this place, and his body ceased to be made of matter.

"Time's quite the current, isn't it?" The voice of the Fisher King came quietly in Alvin's mind, and though he didn't turn around, he could feel the presence behind him. His hands shook in anger and frustration, but he knew there would be no venting it on the Old Man. Not if he wanted to survive, at any rate. "An effective eddie's hard to come by. That's ultimately what pulls you back here. It's not the conversion between this world's non-substance and that world's matter that stresses the connection, or you wouldn't be able to spend any time there at all. It's time. Being back in four-dimensional space is taxing, even for you. Whatever… you are."

Alvin couldn't help but snap at this remark, even if it was just a little. Sparks protested vainly in one of his arms, which caused him to bite back the words he was about to say. After biting back several more little insults, he settled on a genuine question, one with a faint passive-aggressive bite implied in it. That would have to do. "But if all time is one for you here, shouldn't you already know what I am? Or what I'm becoming…" He stared defiantly into the man's face, a little ounce of triumph in his eyes. A fatal flaw in the man's absurd idea that time didn't flow here.

The only response he got was a faint, somewhat satisfied smile. "Yes… I suppose I would. Guess you're catching on. But… there's no time for that. Time in your universe hasn't stopped moving, and you've got to get this next jump precisely correct. I don't have the strength left to make you another eddie." The king whose nation was a universe showed Alvin where to go, just as he had before. This time, the young trainer was wandering through the twisted reflection of some sort of large manner-estate, each building a gigantic, disfigured monstrosity. But he wasn't here to admire the reflection of his world's architecture, though he had to climb inside one of the largest structures to reach his destination. After making several jumps between universes, he had begun to feel the weakness in the air, the thinning of the borders as the right temporal-spacial coordinates aligned. There were several doors in the estate, but Alvin did not desire them to impede his progress, so they did not, and soon he was at the far end of one of the building's many wings. "This is the last jump you'll make where civilization as you know it survives, so enjoy the sights." The man spoke to his mind as he traced his finger along the huge wall-size mirror, the only object that had an unaltered reflection here. The glass rippled at his touch, shining like water. "traveling through a reflective surface should help minimize the stress on your body… not that I would be too worried, with as near as the end seems to be."

But Alvin had stopped listening, eyes widening at the sensation of pushing through universes on his own. His unnamed guide, the being that was at once an injured old man, a powerful and unbelievably ancient pokemon, and an allegory for a mythological story… could not help but smile at this, the second genuine smile that had ever crossed his lips. But Alvin didn't see that either, as he concentrated, maintaining the flickering, reflective echo as he wrapped his arms tightly around Sparks and stepped through to the universe of his birth.

The transition was as it had always been, unbelievably painful, but considerably less than his first three crossings. The Fisher King had been right about less stress on his body, which he watched his subconscious quickly assemble from stray atoms floating somewhere in the void between worlds. At last… when it seemed thousands of years had passed in silence, he seemed to make progress, stepping out of the endless whitewash into the infinitely brighter electric lights of an ordinary bedroom.

For a few seconds, Izzy did not notice the strange intruder, who had stepped into her space with a much less spectacular fanfare than he had on his previous appearances. Izzy was too absorbed with what she was doing, straightening her flowing pink hair, and singing a song whose words she had never been taught.

"_Once there was no sun, for all space was a star. The ocean once was new, taken from the dead. We were once all alone, a whole planet for ourselves. But now a sphere of tiny friends, and every one loves you."_

On and on the little lullaby went, a repeating singsong melody that no human ears but Alvin's had ever heard. He couldn't help but stare as he heard the words, slightly confused by the unfamiliar bimodal school of music that had produced it. So he did the only thing he knew to do at a time like this: He cleared his throat, tapping lightly on the mirror with his knuckles. Izzy did not turn around, didn't even stop singing for several more moments. When the song was done, she went right along straightening. Only her tail betrayed her real emotion, unmoving and stretched rigidly behind her. In that instant, Alvin realized he and Isabella were now the same age.

"I knew you'd be coming soon" she said, her movements a little stiffer than they had been before she noticed him. Was it frustration? "I was hoping I'd be more ready. Still…" she stood up, turning to face him with a nervous smile on her face. Alvin felt his cheeks burning, and he couldn't quite place why. Izzy didn't notice. "Let's try not to waste your time. I've got an idea to keep you here, and it's complex." She hurried forward, taking his hand and tugging him through the door. Alvin's cheeks were now redder than her hair, but he didn't say anything to object. Not at first.

"C-complex?" Alvin repeated, sounding more nervous than Izzy looked. He had been the victim of more than his fair share of complex plans in his life, many of them at David's behest during his several years as a pokemon. To his great dismay, it was to this time Izzy next referred.

"I've been doing my research." She said, nodding proudly as she walked him down an empty hallway, whose various decorations and fixtures were nothing less of exquisitely valuable. Even at his most wealthy Alvin could not have afforded one of these priceless objects. But he didn't have the time to appreciate them. "I know all about you now. Or who you used to be. Your age doesn't match the records. If you'd been frozen in ice the day you vanished you should be almost forty. But aside from that… I know all about you. And about him." She pointed at sparks, who was perched on his shoulder. "I don't really understand most of it, but apparently he's really smart or something. Not as smart as you for making him, or somehow living… years… as a pokemon? That must've made life really difficult. I heard of something like that happening with a pokemon specialist, but that was for a few hours, not years."

Alvin nodded, though his amazement was growing with his embarrassment. How could she know about his secret teenage disaster? Not that his entire family was in agreement about that. Erica in particular was quite thankful for it: She wouldn't exist otherwise, after all. Alvin's feelings were more mixed. He loved his daughter deeply, but at the same time, he'd also never fully recovered from the damage. "Can we… can we not talk about that? I've really tried not to think about it since I escaped. I think we've got enough to worry about, besides…" His grip on her hand slackened, almost as though he were about to let go. Her grip was too strong for him to escape without major effort though, and he didn't want to attract attention to himself in a place like this. It was so quiet, like the inside of a church. Had he not noticed the extreme value of everything here, he would wonder how big a family would need to live in a place like this, and how they could be so quiet. "What's this plan of yours, and what does it have to do with me being a pokemon?"

Izzy was already dressed like a trainer. She'd been wearing a larger version of the same belt she had several years before, complete with pokeballs. She took one of these… obviously empty, and held it out meaningfully. "Daddy let me talk to some of the best scientists out there. They made this special pokeball just for you… though I had to lie about what it was really for. Only problem is it's still got that chip that stops pokeballs from capturing humans and stuff. So…" She grinned meaningfully as she used one foot in combination with a flick of her tail to open a large door. The room inside was small, but sterile and white. The equipment was already on, huge table-top apparatus whirring and spinning and flashing faintly. "Don't worry… it won't be any worse than what you did to me." She released his hand, flicking her tail in front of his face, briefly. Alvin blushed deeply, but didn't argue. After all… she was right. And if it could help him stay here…

"I see the logic in storing Sparks and I digitally, but what I don't see is how that could help. Won't I have as much time as before, just… spread out over whatever I get between being released?"

Izzy shook her head calmly, rubbing some sort of clear gel on a pair of electrodes with one finger. "I don't really understand how it works, but the scientists said that even really unstable matter would be stabilized by being… reintegrated? I think that's how you say that… released. Cuz' the pokeball makes you from scratch each time or something. All we have to do is not keep you outside it for more than (she counted briefly on one of her fingers, which move rapidly in some simple counting mechanism Alvin hasn't seen before) "Thirty minutes? Yeah… thirty minutes or so. And even if we do forget, you should just get recaptured by the pokeball instead of vanishing back to… wherever it is you go. Last time all I had was my pokedex to record what happened, and the scientists weren't really sure. Anyways… this stuff's a lot more advanced than it was back when you were my age… or… I guess you're still my age. However that works."

Alvin thought about fighting back, struggling out of her grip… but then he thought about what he might miss if he vanished again. Hadn't the Fisher King told him that this would be his last chance to see civilization the way he knew it? So instead of fighting as she placed the diodes, he just gripped the side of the table, climbing into a chair at her prompting. "I'm guessing you must already have a species picked out, since it would probably take a lot more resources to have options."

Izzy nodded. "I'm sure you can guess what it's gonna be. Got to be sure we don't mess up your genes or anything. And since there weren't any public samples of your genes available… Otherwise I probably would have chosen something like mine. Something a little more elegant. But it doesn't really make a difference, so long as it helps keep you here. Apparently that's important." Were her cheeks redder too? It was difficult for Alvin to tell, but for at least a moment she looked as self-conscious as he felt.

Alvin was quite a bit older than he looked: It didn't take much of his mental capacity to realize that Izzy had ulterior motives. And to think about them made him feel slightly less self-conscious about his own. "Just… warn me before you start, alright? I'm not really sure what you're using, but I hope it doesn't hurt."

Izzy looked sheepishly away from him. "Well, I… it doesn't hurt, but… it's a little late to warn you. Sorry! It's already started, look…" She twisted a small mirror towards him, gesturing to the little polished circle. Alvin looked with horror as the color faded from his eyes, as his already bright-yellow hair changed to fur, and spread swiftly down his back, his front, with a sensation of faint warmth rippling along with it. And strangest of all… he wasn't the only one to be growing fur. For Izzy the sensation was clearly painful, because she dropped sideways out of her chair, moaning and whimpering.

"Izzy!" He exclaimed, standing shakily as his feet twisted into what were effectively paws, and he stepped out of his shoes without realizing it. It was so hard to split his thoughts during a transformation… so hard to follow his ears up the side of his head, the growing lengthening feeling behind him, and the little girl squirming in pain on the ground, with fur growing in bloody spurts that tore bits of her skin. After seeing what had happened to her during his previous visits, Alvin knew immediately what must be causing it, just as he knew that he was the one responsible. It didn't surprise him that such an extreme transformation had taken longer to get going, but… that didn't make it very pleasant to watch. "Can I do anything to help you? Should I-"

The girl used one of the table-legs to pull herslef into a sitting position, in complete defiance to the pain she felt, and the blood trickling gently from her mouth. But she shook her head, fighting back the tears as she did so. "N-no… I expected it. Every time you visit… things get worse. I just expected… have you ever used painkillers before? Real ones?" At a positive response from Alvin, she continued. "There are some ready-to-inject morphine hypodermics in the medical kit attached to the wall there. Could you get me one of those?"

The trainer-pokemon did everything he could to comply, trying to ignore the energetic squeaks of protest coming from the pichu at his heels. "You look halfway like a pokemon, Alvin!" Sparks called up, sounding both worried and extremely excited. "Like you said you used to be! I don't think you should do this… but if you do, you've gotta play with me! I haven't had a real pikachu to play with in forever!" The pichu was going to be disappointed, as Alvin's transformation did not progress much further. He did find handling the hypodermic somewhat more challenging than expected, and doubly so locating a suitable vein in somebody who's body was actively and visibly changing with the moments. But he found it, and holding Izzy's neck still for a moment, he was able to administer the drug, after which she appeared to gradually relax.

Alvin had only just started to relax himself when he heard the door to the hallway swing open, and he turned to face a young boy accompanied by several armed maintenance-staff, looking extremely angry.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Present Day

Adam couldn't imagine his life getting any worse, not for a moment. His body and will subjected, almost at random, forced to watch his body rot before his eyes. He won… or at least, he thought that he had won, but the fact that the next several hours were missing from his memory might indicate his victory had been short-lived, what he could remember after that seemed to indicate that the contagion had been purified.

Until he had started to transform. The "him" he had spoken with didn't seem to be under the influence of the entity that had invaded his body, but couldn't it have learned to mimic his behavior? It /had/ been inside his mind. Maybe his note was a lie… maybe all of it was a lie. There was no way for him to know. On the other hand, he was completely sure about what had happened afterwords. This tiny body, surging with electricity that occasionally sparked across the short distance between him and his companion, causing them both to shiver involuntarily. Animal-control had used stun-spore to contain the two of them, and it still hadn't worn off. Adam's companion got together the strength to speak before he did, a faint squeak he could barely hear over the sound of the engine so near their gigantic ears.

"I know what you're thinking…" The plusle on the other side of the cage said, with the faint sound of disdain plain in its voice. "I /promise/ it's worse for me. At least you're just a pokemon… I'm a _female_ pokemon. And probably some sort of clone. Unless you're the clone, and I'm the real Adam… I bet we could find out if we could use our equipment. Except we're in a stupid cage, on the way to the stupid shelter, so I doubt we'll get the chance."

Adam tried to look at the speaker, but only one of his eyes would properly respond. It wasn't as though there was anything unexpected to see. One plusle was much like another so far as Adam was concerned, but he'd never seen one that used to be him. He also knew the word "clone" wasn't the right one, probably just as well as that other version of him did. A clone was an intentional copy, not… was there even an organic way to describe this? Mitosis? Except that multicellular organisms couldn't… not on the scale of their whole bodies, anyway. Speculating on what it might've been seemed so pointless now. "It doesn't matter." He said, after a short pause, during which he struggled upright into a weak sitting position. "All that stuff that /thing/ said about the disease… all those missing people. I think I- we… know what happened to them." He didn't even think at the time that he wasn't speaking in english anymore. "I just wish I knew why it took so long to incubate…"

"Maybe it didn't." His companion was sitting up too now, looking back with an expression of serious consideration. "Think about how many people were in the hotel that night… few thousand, maybe. How many people have we all met since then? How many people have those people met?" They both shivered in unison at the thought, and the female continued. "I think the disease is a tool. I don't know how, but the entity seemed to be centrally controlling it. The time since the impact was probably just to give us all time to infect as many as possible."

Their conversation was interrupted as the vehicle came to a stop, and after a moment, the cage was detached from the car, and carried inside between two wildlife workers. Irrational fear at the motion of his entire world briefly overcame Adam, who found himself clinging to his companion as they were walked inside, the female clinging just as tightly back. He didn't really pay attention to the conversation of the workers outside the cage, whimpering. One thing he couldn't ignore were the hands that reached in, prying him apart from the plusle and lifting him into the air.

"Adam!" He heard her shout from inside, obviously terrified, and he responded in the only way his instincts knew how: releasing every bit of the electrical energy dissolved into his body. The energy did not go into the hands of his attacker as he had hoped: the young man was wearing rubber gloves. Rather, the attack went to the next-most direct route to ground: Through the cage Adam had yet to be completely removed-from. His clone, or his copy, or whatever she was, whined a little as the energy coursed through her, but didn't seem particularly hurt by it. More annoyed than anything else.

"Careful little guy… your friend probably doesn't like being shocked like that." A voice boomed overhead, causing Adam's ears to droop at the volume, and squeak vainly in protest.

"Q-quieter… I can hear you just fine without shouting." He muttered, squirming in a vain attempt to escape from the man's grip. But the veterinarian was obviously much more experienced with pokemon than Adam himself was with being one of them, and the stun had only just worn off. Fear mingled with equal parts of self-conscious embarrassment… when he was alone with another "Pokemon" it was easy not to think about modesty, but now that he was being painfully reminded of how small he was, and how bare he was… it was impossible to forget. A little relief came when he was deposited in a large plastic box with cloth coating the floor, raised smooth sides erasing any illusions he might've had about escaping. A few more weaker shocks were equally fruitless, and it was then that Adam entirely gave up, standing up on tiptoe to try and look into the vet's face, who seemed busy recording the details of the scale the box had been placed on. "Listen… I know it's probably going to sound crazy, but you have to listen to me." He said, as calmly as he possibly could. "My… f-friend and I used to be human. You've got to let us go right now… if you don't, we won't be able to warn anyone… lots of people might die! Maybe even the whole world!" He made a gesture with tiny paws, emphasizing the seriousness of the issue.

Unfortunately, the gesture did not have the desired effect. The vet smiled down at him, chuckling a little. "Energetic little guy, aren't you? Don't worry, we won't take you away from your friend. It's just that I've got to weigh you separately. She'll have her turn once I've finished with you. Here…" He reached down into a drawer, pulling out a huge piece of gummi candy that was in Adam's mouth before he could protest. He chewed, only to find the sugary substance had congealed, making all future speech impossible. This annoyed him a great deal, but his electricity was all spent, and both of them knew it. Adam started chewing furiously, but he stopped after only a few seconds of the effort… what was the point? He was a pokemon, and humans had never really been able to understand them. Words wouldn't get him out of this, and he was too new to this body to escape physically.

Adam tried his very best to close his eyes and ignore what was happening to him during the rest of his health inspection, wincing at the pain of several immunizations but trying to seem as dignified as possible. Even when he'd finished eating he didn't try to talk again, and even when he felt some measure of electrical energy returned he didn't try to attack the vet again. There was no point in a fight he knew he couldn't win, and he felt completely naked without his companion. (to say nothing of how physically naked he actually was). Even when the vet briefly turned away, or stepped out of the room for a moment… he didn't try to escape. He wasn't going anywhere without his companion, his friend, his twin… whatever she was.

After a good twenty minutes of being measured and injected and humiliated, Adam was placed inside a fairly large clear-plastic cage in another room, and he pressed himself to the edge until about half an hour later, when the plusle was slipped inside beside him, and the latches atop the box were snapped closed.

The girl relaxed without hesitation, slumping into a sitting position with her back to his. Adam couldn't help but smile as sparks briefly connected them, completing a circuit that'd been broken for nearly an hour. The energy invigorated his mind and body, and clearly did the same for her, because she spoke up almost immediately. "I hate you, you know." She said, growing less exhausted as the moments passed, just as Adam did. "Trying to shock him when he hadn't pulled you out of the cage yet? I thought we were alot smarter than that."

"I wasn't thinking! I've never had to deal with animal instinct before, and neither have you! I doubt you did better… bet you kicked and squirmed and tried to shock the doctor just like I did."

His answer was clearly unsatisfactory, because the other Adam had stood up and struck him hard on the head with both forepaws simultaneously. "Well, that's for shocking me. So now that we're square, we can work on a way to escape, get back to the school, then somehow save the whole planet from a disease we don't really understand."

Adam shook his head, standing up too. He didn't strike his… "but before we do anything like that, I need something to call you. I don't want to call you Adam, that's my name. I don't even know how to think about you. Are you my… sister? My clone?"

The other rodent was looking down now, away from him. "Let's go with twin. Twin sister." She spat that last word, a mixture of annoyance and frustration at it. "I don't really agree that Adam's more your name, but I don't want to waste time arguing about it. How about… Sam? If I remember Sam, you've got to." Samantha had been the name of Adam's first pokemon ever, a pachirisu that had been old when he got her, but still loving and clever. He'd cried for a week when the squirrel finally died, and left fresh flowers on the little mound in his backyard several times a year thereafter. As he'd grown, he eventually let her memory fade. Eventually, he had even stopped leaving flowers. But thinking about Sam now made them both want her back, and thinking about that made them think about Ion, and…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Well, thus ends another chapter. I'm sorry about two weeks of hiatus… what with finals week and then returning home from my first two semesters at college, I just totally lost track of things. I do intend to be timely in my release schedule from now on. Nothing's gonna stop me now! I've got to keep writing… for science (you monster)! And so I can finish this project before I vanish from the internet for a few years (scared).

As before, I'm gonna respond to reviews now. Please don't be offended if I don't talk about your review here… I greatly value everybody's input, and as always it's your reviews that keep me writing (quite literally). Though there isn't much I can say about it in a place like this, even single-line reviews are appreciated. Bring me your worst/best criticism… I deserve it!

Oh, and nobody yell at me for writing the little bit from the meeting in Logan's human perspective, even though Logan isn't there. It was just easier for readers/writer alike if I could write that little scene from a perspective we could all easily understand. I think this story's trippy enough without me going into the finer points of direct conciousness-to-conciousness communication.

Azure Butterfly: Yeah… sorry about that. I think I've confused quite a few people. I can only hope this chapter helped clarify just a little of your confusion, and that by the end of the story, you're left feeling satisfied.

DPL: I wouldn't count Miya out of the story yet. There is a world-crushing enemy on its way after all, and I'm sure she'll have her part to play with that. Unless she's somehow been infected with the same thing that Adam caught… Also, sorry about not explaining things, like the Arceus motherships. I wish wish wish wish Nintendo would hire me to write for them, so I could write this stuff legitimately and do it full time. But there's so much content I have to get through that I really have to concentrate on what's important. Hopefully by the end of the story all your curiosity will be satiated. Sorry there haven't been any Emolgas yet. I had thought to make Adam one, but going for something new and different won the day in that department.

Another Interested Reader: Your review this time brought to light a very important and serious flaw with my writing thus far: My horrible horrible lack of the ability to stay immobile in time. Every post is jumping years forward or years back so that I've even lost track of what's what. But don't worry: I'm not doing it anymore, or at least trying to rapidly put an end to it. So for the sake of everybody's sanity, here's the timelines explained once and for all.

At least fifteen years in the past, the events of PD. We know this from what the mirror-world voice tells to Alvin. But before Alvin does anything, the meeting with the legendaries takes place. In it they discuss what's going on in the future and what they can hopefully do about it. The outcome of this meeting isn't entirely known. Alvin meets Izzy sometime 15-30 years after PD. He begins to hopscotch through time, jumping several years forward each time he vanishes, until he reaches Izzy a year or two before present day and she enacts her somewhat convoluted plan to keep him in physical reality. A year or two later is the story with Adam, considered "Present Day" for the purposes of this story. Once Alvin and Izzy catch up to "present day", the story will move forward through time in a much more linear fashion, and hopefully people stop having their heads explode due to my bad writing.

I'm sorry for confusing people with all my time-travel. I should've learned from Dr. Who how dangerous it was.

So, you noticed my dubious inclusion of another legendary character, and my reference to a rather unhelpful character during the meeting. Perhaps we'll meet one or both of these individuals (if they're the same person, meeting one would do for both I think) later in the story. Only time will tell. Unless we timeskipped…

KA: I hope I clarified the timelines up there to your satisfaction. As for the interface, well… the simplest answer is that Adam was "rationally self-interested' with regards to the device. He discovered it in a ruin, told nobody until now, so that the people at the university think that it's his prototype invention. It's there because they think he's the inventor and he's getting it ready for a wider market.

Kirby Oak: I had really hesitated to use mewtwo in this story, the same way I try to avoid cannon characters if I can: I don't really think I can write them the way they appeared in their mediums: I'll always taint them somehow with my own ideas. I have no doubt that happened here. But where Korina is a mew and the one that inspired UA, someone easy for me to write, mewtwo thinks in a way quite different from me, and is very difficult to write. I did my best, but I'll be limiting his appearance as much as possible, so as to despoil such a great character as little as I can. Oh, and I'm sorry if I ruined any of your mew. All the more reason to look up above and check out that little bit about me not liking to use cannon characters.

Sooooooooooooooooooooo many long reviews last chapter, always very much appreciated. I hope this chapter is as good as its predecessors. Here's to hoping the next one will be even better. With any luck (reviews notwithstanding) the next chapter should be here this time next week.


	5. Escape Velocity

Chapter 4: "Escape Velocity"

Alvin didn't know what frightened him more: The firearms, or the pokemon, but he settled on the handgun the butler was holding. He'd felt (and survived) pokemon attacks before; they could be horribly painful, but these household helpers looked much less unfriendly than the score of wild pokemon that had tried to eat him. If anything, they seemed to be growing gradually less upset, despite the way their masters might feel. But it was their masters whose opinions mattered, and he had no idea what he could say to defuse the situation. Fortunately, he didn't have to say anything.

"Listen…" Izzy said, both palms outstretched, flat. "This is my friend Alvin… remember him? I've only been talking about him since I was a little girl." Alvin didn't have the chance to say anything else. He did see her expand the ultraball behind her back. Alvin knew what he had to do, setting Sparks down on the ground at his feet, sure that Izzy would be capturing him too. There was little delay. One instant, he was staring weakly into the faces of his discoverers. The next…

He didn't pay much mind to the intelligence-numbing fantasy world within the pokeball: it was nothing new to him, nothing he had time to waste with. Besides… most of what he saw were nightmares. Deaths of people he cared dearly about. His parents? Had to be dead by now. His older sister would be an elderly woman… he was probably the same age as her grandkids. It wasn't fair! David had stolen his life. His career would have to be restarted, at best. And his friends… those he couldn't ever get back. Had there been a funeral for him? David had taken everything… even his maturity, and his plan to send him forward in time had failed spectacularly.

Things were not about to improve for Alvin, for the next face he saw was not Izzy's. With a rush of sound and light, he was physical again, standing in the exact same position he had been, but somewhere very different. There was no way of knowing exactly how much time had passed, or even to make a guess. After his experiences in the reflection, Alvin's sense of the linear progression of time had been almost completely eroded. How much harder would it have been to attempt to follow the dreamlike time of the pokeball? Too hard for him to even hazard a guess. What he did understand were his surroundings… comparatively dark, lit only by the flickering light of a gigantic fireplace. Most of the furniture seemed to be made of some species of exotic wood, forming decorative frames of bookshelves for masterpieces old and new, vastly surpassing those pieces he had seen in the hallways. A glass case nearby was the first to catch his eye, sparkling with reflected firelight. In it, he could barely make out a faint shape, and read the words of the placard. "First known pokeball…" it read in plain block print, hardly doing justice to the relic resting gently inside. "discovered in Ilex Forest, this almost entirely mechanical pokeball is dated…" and so it went on, with a date several hundred years in the past from the last year Alvin had actually known. The pokemorph did not get the chance to read further, though. Across the room a man cleared his throat, obviously trying to get his attention. He sat in a pseudo-relaxed position in a huge leather armchair, his expression unreadable, though there was little friendly in his face.

"I see my daughter wasn't wrong." He said, with a voice that was almost disdain. "Her crazy idea didn't kill you, and you're not a pikachu either. That's good… this wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if you were." Alvin shivered involuntarily as the man spoke, and for the moment, he lacked the courage to reply. "You don't recognize me? No… of course you don't. It's been a long time. I'll remind you… remember Irongate Innovations?"

There were no weapons aimed at Alvin that he could see, nothing at all that was a threat to him except for the pokeball the man held in his hand. But the expression in his eyes was enough to frighten him into speech. His voice was a little higher and faster than it had been before he had become a pokemorph, but that was the product of organic realities over which he had absolutely no control. "Yeah…" He said after a short pause, nodding slowly enough that his big ears didn't shake much. "An intern of mine founded it when he ran away with alot of my research… but it was never very successful. It wasn't as though we couldn't do all the things he stole better than he could, despite all his industrial connections…"

The man's eyes got colder. "Not since you vanished." Alvin's eyes widened a little, and the man continued, grinning. "You think I wouldn't realize? Being younger doesn't change your DNA… and when my daughter told me your name, I thought I'd compare what was left in the genetic resequencer. Sure enough…"

Alvin's ears and tail drooped in unison, as he realized what the man was saying. "Y-you're… you're Averett Irongate? But… but… Izzy said I didn't have any gene-samples on file, and that was why she had to use the machine to change me into something so… so…" Sparks would've been upset to hear him say what he was about to, but Sparks was nowhere in sight. He said it anyway. "primitive. Weak."

"She might've thought that. But until she told me your name, I saw no reason to acquire a genetic sample. But as you can see… when I want something, I get it." The pikachu gulped, because that was exactly how it looked. "It's so nice to see you again, Alvin. After all these years. Here I thought you'd died on that failed flight of yours." he tensed at that, whimpering at a memory he would rather forget. How many lives had been lost that day? And he would probably never know if his theories had been correct. Could teleportation cover extra-solar distances? And he had never found out what happened to Tom, not even David had been able to tell him. "You made things so difficult for me in my youth: but I always wanted to thank you for dying. Without your ideas, Raichu Electric couldn't compete." He smiled faintly. "You should've seen the board bickering… none of them knew what to do in your absence, or what to do with your shares. With Erica comatose, there was nobody to settle the issue. And there was no way they could replace /you/. We bought them out, along with all your old notes. Irongate Innovations never had a serious rival after that."

Alvin fought to keep from crying, or screaming, or running forward and attacking him. He did a fairly decent job, though he couldn't keep his tone completely flat, no matter how hard he struggled. "W-why are you telling me any of this? I mean… it sounds like you've already won. You already took everything I had… what do you want from me? If you want me to work for you, forget it… I've got alot of really important stuff to do! The world's in trouble… David said so, and he's never wrong about this stuff."

It seemed at first like Averett was ignoring him. "Do you remember what happened the day you confronted me, Alvin?"

The pokemorph answered immediately, grinning at a memory much more plesent than the others he had been considering. It'd been awful to lose such a good intern, a good student he'd been hoping to hire someday, but… the triumph of defeating Averett's entire team with the only pokemon he'd had at the time, Desumo… it'd been quite the rush for both of them. "My Raichu and I stopped you from leaving with most of what you had wanted to steal." He said, looking as defiant as he dared. Sparks normally would've cautioned him away from acting so boldly, but Sparks wasn't here. "I think you even had a ground-type with you…"

Averret snapped his fingers. A heavy wooden door on one side of the room swung open, revealing what was unmistakably a well-lit underground pokemon stadium, complete even to the distance between each of the three-inch wide lines. "I want a rematch. Now that you don't have that Raichu anymore… there is no way it would have ever been allowed to compete in any proper tournament with as strong as it was, and with all those moves Raichu aren't supposed to be able to learn. You never did talk about why that was. It seemed strange to me that you would have performed dangerous genetic experiments on that pokemon you professed to love so much. He stood up, drawing a pokeball from a pocket and throwing it towards Alvin, who barely managed to catch it in awkwardly-shaped paws. "There's your Pichu. Since you only have two pokemon, I'll only use three; seems only fair now that we are evening the odds." He started walking slowly towards the now-open door: The two shadowy figures Alvin noticed moving towards him from the dimly lit corners of the room made it clear to him what would happen to him if he didn't follow, so he turned and walked behind the man who was his only true living enemy so far as he knew, the mad and spiteful man who he knew would ignore every logical objection to what they were doing, probably violently if Alvin persisted. He didn't have to ask what Averett meant by "two pokemon", just as well as he knew what would happen if he tried to forfit. He was practically in a stupor as he took a position on the far side of the room, sizing it up for any possible escapes. It was huge, obviously built to the same specifications most gym-leaders used, but nowhere near big enough that he might escape. Even if he'd been an adult in his prime… and there were no other entrances he could see. If he won, Averett might _still_ kill him.

Sparks emerged from the ultraball without difficulty, reforming on the ground in front of him with the customary flash of white light. However Averett had stolen their pokeballs, he had not done anything to interfere with their usual function. "Alvin!" He called energetically, though his face fell as he saw the look Alvin gave him in return, eyes quickly surveying the room. "What… what is it? We're gonna battle… I thought you wanted to give me a chance to try all those move we practiced."

"I'll give you one more minute to think, then if you haven't chosen a pokemon, I'll make it a double battle-" Alvin heard Averett call from across the room. He tried to ignore it. Actually, that didn't sound like such a bad idea. He had no doubt the man had chosen his pokemon specifically to beat them. Sparks's unique physical makeup was their only chance, possibly their only option for escape. If nothing else, it was likely to get the attention of anyone on the island, no matter how far underground they were. Perhaps they could attract Izzy's attention, and get her help. Alvin didn't believe for a moment she would've turned him over to her father willingly… and knew all-the-more that she couldn't know just how much of a monster he really was. "Remember that move Desumo taught you?" He asked, speaking quietly and urgently. "The one I told you never to use again?"

Sparks grinned, taking a battle-ready stance on all-fours. "The one that made that one building flat? But… I don't have anybody else to help. I can't do it myself… and Des isn't with you. You don't have Des, do you?"

Alvin shook his head, sadly. Even after being told many times Desumo was dead… seeing the place he was buried, even, Sparks had never properly accepted it. "I'll be your partner. I know Des never taught me the way he taught you, but… I knew him really well, and I watched him train you. That'll have to do… we don't have time for anything else." Alvin continued to ignore the shouting from the other side of the room, as Averett called "Minute's up… better pick somebody now!" He didn't ignore Sparks, though.

"You've been human longer than I've been alive." The pichu said, nervously. "And… and you're not even properly pokemon now. But I guess…" He glanced around the room again, at the several armed guards that had gradually filed in. "… we don't have a choice. So just… try to do what I do, okay? And… don't let them hit you, cuz' that usually hurts." Alvin nodded hurriedly, knowing he was about to experience the strangest pokemon battle that anyone had ever experienced.

Alvin was not disappointed. He felt the fizz of pokemon materialization somewhere in his body, as energy-to-matter routines made both of Averett's pokemon out of nothing in the space just barely across the line from him. Just as he had ignored his former rival's words he ignored the shouting of the guard playing the part of referee, and the commands Averett shouted to the seeming mountains of scales and stone that had formed across the room. The man had, after all, been a trainer much more avid than Alvin ever had, and with old money that made him much better at it. It seemed that habit had not changed, as two exceptionally rare and strong-looking pokemon took shape. One of them looked bad… only a foot or so taller, but much larger, Tyranitar would have made a challenging enough opponent for him if he had a whole team behind him. At least it wasn't outright immune to electricity as its deadly companion. Alvin had never even /seen/ a Garchomp in person, much less battled one, but he remembered enough to know there were partially ground-type. This battle was already over.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Getting a message to Ion was not the most difficult thing Adam had ever done, not even close. Convicing the admissions staff to allow him to be a student despite his poor grades in secondary school had been a challenge, and surviving the will-overriding virus of unknown origin had been a whole undiscovered tier of mental exertion. What /was/ difficult was sending his message while stuck inside a cage in a body he barely knew how to control. He felt some small measure of pride that the idea had been his rather than that of his copy. Ion was the answer: apart from the exceptionally handy ability to travel in and between computers personally, he could also take passengers. That's what Samantha and himself would be, and the little medical computer that monitored the health of each pokemon would be their doorway. They waited until evening to attempt the escape, when the observational staff was asleep.

"Alright, so… what am I doing again?" Samantha asked, one of her paws on the outlet for the tiny monitoring device mounted to the side of their cage, one faint green LED that flashed every minute, when the signal updated. That was what it did now, and Samantha felt the faint surge of carefully modulated current, indicating that the occupants of this cage were healthy and emotionally stable.

"Just imitate that signal… we've been practicing all day, remember? Just a little charge… too much and you'll burn out the port, and we won't be able to try again until they figure out it needs repairs and fix it. If you get the modulation of frequency wrong, it will signal that somthing's wrong with us and wake the doctors… we don't want that either. Hopefully you only need to do it twice…" If two minutes wasn't enough for him to use that same port to send an override on their cage-lock, than two years probably wouldn't be. For any other pokemon this would be impossible. But no other pokemon had his extensive learning with low-level computing. He had, after all, singlehandedly reprogramed the interface that had saved his life, repurposeing it from the strange code that had been left on it when he first found it. Permanent download and deletion? Not anymore. "Are you ready? Just… next time it sends the signal, remove it and start counting. If you're off by more than a second, it'll show a disconnection and wake up a doctor…"

Samantha winced. "I know! It's not like we aren't the same person… I know what will happen if I screw up! Just… stop reminding me." She closed her eyes, concentrating. When the signal came, she wiggled one tiny forepaw under the device, depressing the clip that caused the large plastic device to fall. The two of them crowded close to the empty port, Samantha counting under her breath. Adam concentrated with all his might, making his best guess at the half-a-volt devices like this usually operated on, sending a simple "ping". With speed his mind could barely process, he felt the return signal, modulated exactly the same way, and he couldn't help but smile. Maybe they would manage this after all.

Aside from a few tense moments as the time to send the "all okay" signal returned, Adam's plan was executed flawlessly. After three minutes of intense concentration, leaving Adam drained despite the little electrical energy he actually expended in the effort. The heavy plastic door clicked, swinging silently open and hanging that way. Adam grinned, release the port and moved back. "Stay here. Keep sending that signal while I call Ion. Hopefully he's still listening on our telenet…" He said, darting towards the edge of the cage, and pausing only a moment before leaping down what seemed fifteen feet to the floor. He landed in an instinctual roll, feeling sore but not injured. He scurried to the medical computer, climbing with much greater difficulty until he could reach the keyboard, and typing a single line into the console. That was all he could do, because while the rush that came from unlocking their door had deadened his mind to the longing for his compatible charge, she had felt no such rush, and instead felt the discomfort full force. Samantha squeaked faintly as his electric-field faded to an almost imperceptible hum among all the other machines, and the stress of repeating the same exact signal over and over was finally too much. Like one of those dancing or band-games with fast-moving notes flying up the screen, only there was somebody standing behind you with a revolver, ready to fire if you missed even a single note. Repeating the signal was not making it easier for her, and coupled with the stress of being on her own… Samantha paused only long enough to re-attach the monitoring the device, not knowing if it had a way of monitoring escape attempts, and not caring what happened.

Less then ten seconds later, as she struggled up onto the computer behind Adam, the door banged open, a single groggy-looking nurse looking at them weakly, brushing unkempt red-hair from her face. "Now how did you two escape?" She sighed in apparent relief as she saw them, scooping them two into her arms and back into their cage before they could so much as protest. "Naughty…" She said tiredly, clicking the plastic closed and turning to leave without another glance, obviously not aware enough to realize the significance of what just happened. Just as the door shut behind her, the computer began to spark. The monitor was fried almost instantly, but fortunately they didn't need it. It did not take long for Ion's familiar shape to appear in the air, hovering there as effected by gravity as its almost complete weightlessness ever was. The nurse returned, but didn't make it past the door, staring in utter bewilderment at the Porygon2. Fortunately for Adam, Ion was much more decisive. Without hesitation the pokemon surveyed the cages, eyes falling on him and Samantha. Without a word, it swept them both up into its electrical field and vanished the way it had come.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No apprentice had ever completed the trials of Bellsprout Tower faster than this one. The young woman had only arrived a few weeks before, and already the sensei said he might have finally found someone to take his place, when the spirits saw fit to take him. The unfathomable mystery of the origin of the tower it seemed she already knew, and after a single day of training she was able to join with the most skilled masters in uninterrupted meditation. Unblinking and unmoving as no novice to their order had ever been, no matter how prestigious his or her blood. Many trainers traveled through the tower, but they saw comparatively little of the facility, and knew even less of its mysteries. This student had learned them all. All but one. The final ritual was the greatest point in the life of any apprentice. Many waited their whole lives and never reached it, as some who currently trained in the tower probably would. But this young woman, scarcely twenty, was there sooner than them all.

In true Zen fashion, the last ritual was the simplest. Both the master of the order and the novice meditated facing one another on the plain ground, dressed in the rough robes that all of the order wore. A single bellsprout was there, acting as the focus for both of them. Neither would move until it decided they were ready, however they might interpret that. It seemed this one thought them ready very soon, as it moved after only an hour, where others had taken days. /Very well./ The master said, or rather, thought, to the apprentice. Telepathy was a simple matter for two so deeply focused on the same thing, and in the same place. /So we begin. Do you understand the nature of this ritual?/ The girl nodded, but he continued anyway. /It is to purge any vestige of doubt from you. It is to become one with the universe. And the essence of the universe is knowledge. So both of us will make ourselves more completely part of it by expanding our knowledge. First you may ask from me one truth, and I will give you a truth. Then I will ask you, and you must do the same./ In rather dramatic fashion, he pulled a dagger from his robes, ritualized and sharpened to a deadly point. The knife itself was of some polished dark metal, so dark that midnight itself seemed to shine from it. A single polished stone shone from the hilt, glowing softly blue in his hand. The master held it to his own chest with both hands, so close it nearly touched the fabric. /This dagger has been with our order since it was founded a millennia ago. The spirits forged it from the metal of a young earth and taught it truth. It abhors all untruth, and will cut down any who speak it./ "Now…" He broke concentration suddenly, staring intently at the young, brilliant face of the greatest pupil he had ever taught. "We'll speak plainly, so the spirits hear us. What truth do you wish from the order?"

Something deeply sad shone in the eyes of the novice, and for several minutes she did not speak. The master thought nothing strange of this, as the straightforward answer to any question was indeed a potent boon. There was no way to gain a gift like this again… and if a novice asked the right question, they would become the new master. There was no way to help this… the only true answer was a lie, and what the master had said about the potency of the dagger had /not/ been. He was very old now, and had seen very many students come to him and ask the wrong questions.

The master would not die today, though he would come to wish he had. "I…" She stammered, weeks of focus wavering on the crux of this question, as though she were about to reconsider. Through what remained of their telepathic connection, the master briefly saw an image of the girl abruptly vanishing and (flying?) away as fast as she could, determined to do his order no great harm. He did not react to this image… he could not. Once this ritual began, there was no way to end it. He had taken a sacred oath. So had she, and it seemed she was just as determined to honor it. "Our order was entrusted long ago with forbidden knowledge the spirits themselves wished to forget. They gave it to us so that they themselves would not suffer the pain of knowing it."

The master nodded, his face growing very pale. He had never told this to the apprentice, never told it to anyone, and wouldn't until a new master was chosen. This was one of the most sacred things, so sacred that not even he was permitted to think about it. What he had was a sort of… telepathic imprint, that had been passed from one master to another down through the centuries, and which he could unlock if he twisted his mind just so. No master ever had… because it could only be accessed once. Once that happened, it would erase itself. Or so the stories told.

"That knowledge is the location of a city. A forbidden city, made from stone more ancient than the oldest marble. A city older than the moon, or the moonstone that we use to focus our powers, and to evolve pokemon. My question is this: How do I find the city and survive to return home safely?"

The master stared openly at his favorite pupil, so utterly shocked as to be beyond anger or frustration. How she could know about this deep secret he had no way of knowing, but it did not matter. This ritual was a sacred bond, and he would honor it no matter the circumstances. The first master of Bellsprout Tower had designed these rituals for a reason, after all. Who was he to judge how correct they were? Did he know more than she-who-walks-between-worlds? Abruptly he snatched the pupil's hand, placing it to his forehead, and concentrating. "Very well." He said, with a voice of such great pain and loss that the novice's emotions rippled once around him. The master ignored that, and forced all his will on twisting open the thought-sealed container that had been passed thought many human lifetimes. Slowly it sprung open, and whatever information was stored there flooded into his mind. The master's eyes glazed over and he dropped the dagger, which fell to land completely buried up to its hilt in the soft wood. When he spoke again, it was a voice not his own, a voice preserved through centuries, and meant for this precise moment. "A mighty secret lies beneath Unova's ancient sands, protected by the veil of time. Even the spirits could not destroy it… so they hid it away. Man thought he could be better than the spirits and erase the past, so he built a fort to hide its mighty secret. But now that castle is a relic, and will soon be reclaimed by the sand. Beneath that castle descend the seven-hundred and seventy steps. No man has seen the secret, for the Nameless City is not for the eyes of men. Forbidden is the Nameless City, and all who see it are damned. The keeper and the guardian of the gate stands by the way, and shut is the path to all but one. Death is the only reward for discovering this forbidden palace." The master stared for a moment into the novice's eyes, a strange, half-confused look on his face. Had he heard any of the words he'd spoken? The novice could not tell. Slowly… trying to act as calmly as he could, the master took up the dagger from where it had fallen, and handed it to the novice by the hilt. She took it without objection, holding it as he had directly to her chest. Her whole body was shaking now, as if in a strong wind. Whatever that message had been, it clearly made more sense to her than it would've to anyone else.

The master did not hesitate with his question. He would doubtless had taken hours pondering what to ask this pupil, had it not been for her choice of questions. But now… now things were different. He sighed as he watched her, struggling to lift the weight of the ancient weapon. "You're leaving after this." He said, rather matter-of-factly. The novice seemed to take it as a question, nodding sadly. The master went on. "I never thought I would be the one to answer that particular question. Most don't know to ask… and I can see why now. It's better that none of them know. If you were anyone else, I would probably help you to forget, whether you wanted to or not. For you own good. But I wouldn't be able to with you, would I?" Again the young woman nodded. She was crying now, though she restrained it enough to stop herself from actually making any noise. A single tear slid quickly down her face, vanishing into the collar of her loose robe. "Here is my question: What are you, and why do you seek this dangerous knowledge?"

Logan knew she was breaking several rules with what she was about to say, but guessed the Eldest would not try to stop her. Others had broken them in the past… with great discretion… and that was what she showed now. Besides… if she lied, this blade /would/ know. In human form, she would not be able to resist its influence: She would tear out her own heart, as several believing the stories of it were just stories had done in the past. "I am one of the creatures your order calls a Spirit." She said, with all the energetic force of a little girl consciously defying her father to his face, wincing a little for a blow of reprisal that never came. "Others call us mew. I don't think the distinction is very important." The blade did not move, and she did not feel its influence in her mind. It was there, a faint presence, but nothing more. Listening… examining her own mind to see if her words were true. And they were, every one. "I came here hoping to learn what my…" The dagger twitched a little in her hand, or perhaps her hand twitched holding it. Regardless, she got the message. The temptation to stretch the truth as she usually did would have to be ignored. "…mate. My friend, my teacher, whatever… what he wouldn't tell me. He said he didn't know, but… I don't believe that the Eldest can't lie the way I used to… I think he does it all the time."

The master would've doubted the words of this novice, were it not for the blade in her hands. Either she was completely mad, and totally thought she was telling the truth, or she actually was. Given her performance in the order over these last few weeks, he had no doubt which was the case. "And what did you hope to gain by knowing the location of the city?" He asked, reiterating the second half of his question.

"To search for knowledge older than the firstborn." She said, very quietly. "To know why I've been lied to about the origin of my species, and what the Eldest doesn't want me to know. And hopefully… by knowing, I can help save the life of everyone on the planet… including you."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alvin's prospectus on his first (And hopefully last) pokemon battle for his life had been somewhat pessimistic, but he knew without question that Sparks was the reason they were both still alive. Sparks had been bred for his intelligence after all… and he was very well trained. With his help, Alvin had avoided attacks that probably would have killed him instantly. Preparing their return-blow was trickier. The electrical "attack" they used was not an offensive move, but a gradual disruption of normal space through careful modulation of local electrical fields. Alvin did not well understand how it worked: now through the intervening years he understood still less. All he knew was that it had something important to do with electromagnetism, and relied on very precise manipulation of space-time. The attack had been executed, albeit much weaker than the time that had nearly leveled one of his laboratories, instantly incapacitating Averett's pokemon without so much as a wimpier of protest. Alvin had not been able to observe the effects. He had barely been able to hear Sparks's shouted command to get close to the wall when white filled his vision. When he turned around, the inside of the stadium was burned black, and both potent pokemon were unconscious. Several of the guards had been blasted backward by some sort of shockwave, but Alvin hadn't felt such a wave. Neither, it seemed, had Averett, who hardly paused in returning both of his injured pokemon, and replacing them with a single, jellylike pokemon that hovered in the air, its transparent organs faintly pulsating inside a body of bioluminescent plasma. Reuniclus hovered motionless, looking into the face of its master for instruction. Moments later, he got it. With a gesture, both Alvin and Sparks were slammed against either side of the wall, held there by force neither of them had any power to resist.

"I thought you'd try and cheat again…" The man said, walking slowly across the field to stand in the space between his pokemon and himself. With every gesture, Reuniclus slammed Sparks against the wall, to the sound of muted cries from one chu and a whimper from the other as he was forced to watch. "I didn't think you would succeed. A very interesting trick… I have no idea how you did it. Pity I'll never learn…" Again and again he made the gesture, and Alvin heard Sparks's cries grow fainter, and a sickening, crunching sound replaced them, accompanied by blood. Alvin did not scream… it seemed he had the will to talk, but didn't waste it on talking. One hand was in his pocket now, tearing at his own tendons to force his fingers around the pokeball still resting there. With the greatest strain and a feeling he knew meant he'd somehow just dislocated his right hand, the pokeball snapped open, returning his now badly-injured pichu to somewhere he would be stable until he could be seen to. Assuming his captor didn't purposefully release Sparks after he finished with Alvin. He was smiling now, past caring about what Averett did to him, though after seeing his willingness to kill, he had little doubt about what would happen.

"Bad idea, Alvin." The man said, approaching him without even bothering to order his pokemon to manhandle him. Or maybe he wanted the pleasure of doing it himself. "I was going to make it nice and simple for both of you. No struggling or mess. Clean… just a few seconds." Whatever his desire, though, he wouldn't get it, because what Averett didn't know was that his daughter had been standing on one of the upper floors of the stands for a full minute now.

Izzy did not know how she had managed to allude the guards this long, which she knew her father had instructed to keep her out of the stadium. This had been how she found Alvin, probing around the island until she found somewhere she wasn't allowed to go. Ophelia had gotten her inside. The Kadabra had no way of hiding them from the eyes of the guards standing all around the room: But it seemed none was required: Izzy had prayed with all her might they wouldn't be seen, and luckily enough they hadn't been. "Can't you just teleport them to me?"

Ophelia shook her head, answering in a brief hushed stream of poke-speak that Izzy somehow knew to indicate the interference of the Reuniclus. It seemed that difficulty vanished when there was only one target, though, because as soon as Averett finished speaking, the pikachu-boy to whom he was speaking vanished, reappearing beside Izzy and nearly slumping to the ground beside her. He would've too, had she not been there to catch him. Literally, in this case. The last thing Alvin could make out with weary eyes was the light of _his_ ultraball, washing away feeling in his whole body. For once, it was a sensation he welcomed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adam did not know if he had been conscious during his time in cyberspace. If he had, then Ion had mercifully erased those memories, just as they had been erased in Samantha's mind. His first real memory was emerging in his old lab, still much as he left it, to retrieve the disk that was so imperative to the survival of all living things in a way he did not even begin to understand. Unfortunately this was as far as they knew to go. What had Adam's mysterious rhyme meant? The moonlight? How could that know what to do about anything? Ion provided the only useful clue: In a search of the library's computer, he'd found ancient _Unknown_ carvings, which referred to something called "the eternally dying music of the stars" as being "sweet to the spirits of the earth, as moonlight is to man." To call this little blurb any sort of significant gain was wishful thinking, but after a few hours of senseless progression, Samantha did realize something Adam had missed, something he barely remembered from his first year of general education.

"Don't you remember that intro to electronics class, when they turned on the radio telescope and pointed it at nothing?" Adam did remember… he remembered the computer program, which had been configured to interpret the tiniest variations as differences in pitch, volume, and timbre. The variations themselves came from the cosmic microwave background. "…which has been getting weaker since the universe was first formed. Once it was hotter than a star, but now it's cooled so much we can barley sense it. So who are the spirits, and why do they care about the CMB?" She used the abbreviation here, since there were no real words for "cosmic" or "microwave", and what took their place were several sentence-long descriptions of exactly what those things were, describing them as best she knew how. It was an exceptionally frustrating way to communicate, and she had no doubt it would get worse the more technical their communication got.

Adam had no doubt, though his answer was neither specific nor very useful. "Some kind of legendary, gotta be. Any other pokemon and we would have known. I don't know what, though. I never really cared about legendaries, since I never believed in most of them." Just as many did not. Many more had in past generations, but as blurry photographs of exceptionally rare pokemon appeared in greater and greater abundance, they'd gone from something to be feared and respected to a common jest in the popular media. "Legendaries sure do like concrete." They might say, indicating the fact that many of the so-called "doctored" photographs were of legendary pokemon in parking garages, plain looking underground structures, and construction sites. One species was represented more than any other… and according to every television expert, they simply couldn't exist. "Even if mew did exist." A biologist might say. "There's no chance they could survive in such a temperate environment. All the historical accounts and fossils are from tropical regions. There's just no way a tropical species like that could survive outside of the rainforest. And there's no reason any of them would be wandering around in shady-looking government buildings." Or so the experts said. Adam had never questioned them, never once, and had no real reason to do so now. Or even to think about mew specifically. It was merely indicative of the general trend, which was in this case a trend towards cynicism.

Samantha nodded sadly. "Just like we never believed in mind control-diseases or spontaneously changing into a pokemon. Or… whatever what happened to us is called." That didn't mean they were just going to give up, though. They examined everything, even the least reputable sources, and it seemed sunlight was streaking in through the one tiny window by the time they had anything even close to something to go on. It wasn't much… just a few tiny, unobtrusive articles about a popular Saffron city legend. It was a totally different avenue of thought from their original hypothesis about the CMB, but it was all they could find. The stories were all the same… a powerful psychic pokemon was sometimes seen on the streets of the city at night, a pokemon that matched no known species. Almost nothing was known about this pokemon, except that local folklore held it to be something of a neighborhood hero. A few people claimed to have spoken with it, but… their stories were contradictory. What was universal was the condition the pokemon was spotted: Always by moonlight.

Finding him proved easier than they could've hoped for. Arriving in Saffron the next night via a 24-hour ATM, greatly surprising the elderly woman who'd been using it at the time. After scurrying quickly away with Ion in tow, they had gone only a few meters down the alleys before they found who they were looking for. The Pokemon looked to be as tall as an adult, grey and armor-plated and purple, with bright, faintly luminous blue eyes. "I sense that you have something I need." He said, voice resonating in perfect english inside their heads, which was so frightening to both of them after the last time this had happened that Samantha and Adam clung to one another, shaking. Ion was calmer, floating over the pair and looking impassively at mewtwo. "There is no need to fear me. I am unlike the entity that transformed you. I do not expect you to understand… but I do expect your help. Your memories indicate you made something, something that can help. I suspect it will be of use in fighting this disease. Your human wills are too weak to survive it… you are the first, and very soon there will be millions of deaths unless someone can find a way to prevent it from spreading."

"All the stories about you-" Samantha interrupted. "All kinds of impossible things. Like once apparently you erased memories of everyone in the whole world, and you single-handedly took on Team Rocket's entire combat unit, and you can bring back the dead, and…"

Was the pokemon smiling? It was difficult for Adam to tell. His night vision was not very good, and he was still exceptionally inexpert at judging pokemon emotions. "I don't know the source of your information." He said rather matter-of-factly. "But I don't control it like the others. Believe whatever sources you choose. Except… don't think I'm unlimited. I was created to be the world's most powerful pokemon. I am as much a part of this world as you are: limited and finite in my powers. Not even the mew have been able to cure this new infection." There was something reserved about what he was saying now, like someone consciously breaking the law, and daring anyone to call them on it. If this was a law, it wasn't one Adam or Samantha had learned, so they said nothing. Somebody talking about "mew" like something that actually existed was completely ludicrous to them, and they knew they could not hide that thought from this being. But until a few days ago they would have scoffed just as skeptically at talk about the strange infection and all the many coincidences and disappearances that surrounded it. If the being was listening to their thoughts, he made no comment on them, merely continuing without much interruption. "Yes, I see it." Adam briefly felt the shoelaces tied around his back slacken, as the data disk vanished without the slightest sensation, appearing an inch or two in front of the strange paws of the pokemon, who studied it with a look of intense concentration.

"Are you…" Adam couldn't resist the question. "You can't read that without a holodrive… it takes reflective lasers and everything to get the data off one of those disks… and I've already tried. It's heavily encrypted. It would take weeks with a supercomputer to get that data without any of the keys."

Mewtwo didn't answer directly. "You were good enough to record a video file of most of your experience…images of the infection, as much anatomical data… worthless information I collected long ago, but some of this…" He went silent for several seconds, and abruptly the weight of the disk reappeared where it had been, inside a plastic sleeve and tied to Adam's back for easy transport. "I suppose the two of you are unique, just as I am unique. Your contribution will save many lives too weak to save themselves. The others will be in communication with you… just find somewhere safe far from the city and stay there. You might have beaten the soulphage, your bodies are weak. And you must survive."

That was all. No farewells, no thanks, no pleasantries. Without the usual sound of displaced air, without a flash or a fanfare, the strange pokemon was gone, vanished into the dark, leaving Adam and Samantha more confused than ever.

Over the next few weeks, they followed the instructions of the pokemon whose name they had never learned. This proved to be good advice, as martial law quickly followed the spread of the epidemic just as they had speculated. But high in the nearly uninhabited mountain hills somewhere in Kanto, they were almost completely undisturbed. What little difficulty they had encountered upon arriving in the secluded cabin of the single long-term pokemon researcher in the area had been minor. Christian Selim had even been receptive to communication with them, acting with the assistance of a barely functional translation matrix and an unusually intelligent pachirisu. But after a few days of sharing his cabin, an unmarked helicopter arrived for him, and the researcher was led away, leaving the two cheering pokemon alone in the single-room abode. This worked out very well for the two (three) of them, as the cabin had been built to exist far away from any power utility. Geothermal temperature control, rainwater collection, solar and wind for power… Samantha spent much of her time struggling to use the computer. The disk they had recorded was very heavily encrypted, well beyond the power of Christian's solar netbook to brute-force the solution, and nothing she tried could allow her to read even a single bit of the data. Samantha grew to respect the power of that strange pokemon even more.

Adam's concerns were much more practical. Whatever that data was, it was in the hands of somebody far more powerful than they were. Whoever needed to know had doubtless already been informed. Curiosity was a powerful motivator, but… he already had so much to be curious about that the data was drowned in the whitewash. They only had the electricity to run the television for a few hours every other day (without supplemental charging neither of them felt confident enough yet to try), but what they did see was truly horrifying. Adam's hometown of Celadon was unsurprisingly the strongest impacted, and several days of riots in the streets were replaced with a military quarantine and a gradual descent into silence. No public figures were released of how many healthy had been evacuated, though Adam was dreadfully confident the number was not a high one.

And there were much more pressing physical concerns. During the week they had lived with Christian food had never really been a concern; they ate the same pokechow that his Pachirisu Relay had eaten, and at the same time. Now that he was gone… there was more than enough food for the first few weeks, particularly with how little each of them ate. But after that only long term food-storage remained, unprepared flour and beans and dehydrated meats, neither of them were particularly expert at preparing and their bodies didn't much care for. It would keep them alive, but only just. A more pressing problem was the dryness of midsummer: Water had already been running out when they arrived, at the rate they used it only a few days remained. So they had been forced to venture out into the woods, traveling about half a mile to a large secluded pond for water which they sometimes carried back to the cabin by dragging a water-filled bottle behind them. After a few days, Adam undertook these journeys himself, finding his time outside the tiny cabin more and more liberating, and gradually growing more comfortable with the forest. Still, it seemed the heavy scent of humanity, product of where he spent his time, kept him safe from predators as much as it kept friendly pokemon from approaching.

After a few weeks of being gone though, Christian's scent had faded. During one of his daily trips to the pond for water, Adam found it hadn't been deserted long before he arrived as it always had been. Adam had never actually met an Emolga in person before. Doing so only under very different conditions was… strange for him. The scent was unmistakably female, which made him much more willing to try and interact with her for reasons he didn't really understand. She was about the same height, just over a foot, with a large head, big eyes, and electrical sacks just like all the electric-rodents did. Her charge wasn't complementary the way Samantha's was, but the constant flux of electromagnetism he'd learned from Relay to expect from another electrical rodent. Some deeply buried part muttered something quietly in his mind about how alone they were… how quickly he could close the distance between them before she would have the chance to scurry up a tree… but it was quickly silenced. The voice of instinct had been growing louder every day, though it was never more than a dull ache in the back of his mind. He was perhaps the first human being ever to be crammed into a brain much too small for him and not feel the strain of it; Or to forget significant portions of his human memories. It was all there when he thought about it… or, if he did forget, Samantha always remembered what he didn't, and vice-versa. Had that been the reason he had split himself into two bodies… to preserve his mind? The logic of such a theory was totally absent aside from the circumstantial, but he had trouble not believing it. That was part of the instinct too, he suspected. Simpler solutions were always preferred to more complex ones.

The female seemed about to run from him, her eyes locked on him as he hesitated, than abruptly rose to two limbs. At this she relaxed, seeming to become less frightened the more strange behavior she saw. "You smell a little like Relay's human." She called, somewhat suspiciously. "But you don't smell that much like Relay. Where is he? I come here every day to see him, but… I don't see him anymore. Are you his replacement? His human finally got tired of trying to fix him and got a new pet." There was resentment in her voice now, anger. All emotions much too sophisticated for any wild pokemon Adam had met before. Or was it just that he was projecting human emotions on the alien culture that radiated from her? "I don't know why else you would be out here without your mate. Humans probably separated you, didn't they? Took your plusle from you and now you're looking for a new mate." She scurried suddenly closer, closing a little of the distance, then imitating him by standing up on two legs. It wan't a particularly comfortable position for either, though Adam found it worth the effort in order to feel more human. And this emolga did it because… "Well I'm sorry. There aren't any plusle or minun on this whole mountain… the only ones I knew died last summer when the big colony couldn't feed itself. And there weren't any unpaired ones, so… even if they were still here…"

It looked like this Emolga was just going to keep talking if Adam didn't say anything, so he took this chance to interrupt her, feeling the same rush he always did when communicating with a wild pokemon. The unique opportunity had hardly been one of his dreams before being transformed, but he wasn't so full of himself as to fail to see how to appreciate a chance like this. There were _technically_ pokemon translation devices, but they were gimmicky machines which functioned about as reliably as lightning. Sometimes it struck the same place twice, but not often. After a few prominent disasters resulting in human and pokemon casualties alike, they'd been removed from service in all government agencies, replaced by psychics and psychic pokemon, which proved much more reliable if not quite as specific. "Stop… I'm not Relay's replacement. The human who used to live there is gone, and he took Relay with him. My…" He struggled with the word, and chose a different one instead. "my plusle is my twin sister. We were living with Christian… that's the human's name… until he left. Now we're living in his house."

The Emolga reacted as though she had been struck, falling immediately onto her rump and big eyes filling with tears. "R-relay… left without even… saying goodbye?" She sniffed, then started to cry, burying her head in her arms much as any human woman in her position might've done. Had this been any other emotional display, Adam would've demanded immediate answers by now. He didn't care if she was some sort of pokemon prodigy… no wild animal could be this intelligent. She thought about the past in detail, planned for the future, and experienced intense emotion in the present. In short, she was sapient in every sense Adam knew the word. How was that possible?

He abandoned philosophical speculation in favor of closing the distance between them and patting her gently on the back, just as he would have done for a good friend in this exact position. It was a little uncomfortable to get this close to someone with a charge that didn't cancel perfectly with his the way Samantha's did, and sparks briefly connected them in slight pain for both as the electrical imbalance corrected itself, and the discomfort vanished. "I'm sure Relay wanted to…" he said, though he wasn't sure at all. Relay hadn't even mentioned her to them. "These humans came in the middle of the night with weapons… they left right away. Christian didn't even have time to take his research. He barely even had time to bring Relay." The squirrel sniffed, seeming comforted at least a little, so he went on. "Do you have a name? Most of the wild pokemon I've met so far haven't had names, but since you knew Relay…"

"Lumine" She croaked, looking over at him with an expression like barely contained suspicion. Fortunately for her, it was unfounded. "And don't you say I only have one because Relay gave me one… my whole family has them. Er'…" She trailed off to a fresh wave of tears, and after some delay, continued. "H-had them." Lumine did not get the chance to say more. Didn't, because at that moment, an exceptionally hungry-looking Seviper emerged from the bushes near them, lunging for what it evidently hoped would be its next meal with deadly accuracy.

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A/N: Sorry to call it here everypeoples. I really did want to keep writing, but… this chapter has gone on long enough. I tried to get in the rest of the story before the rapture today, but… as you can see, that didn't happen. Since the world has probably already ended in your timezone by the time you don't ever read this, I suppose this whole thing's been pointless anyways. Sorry about not posting it last week. I tried to make up for missing last week by posting a single chapter that's as long as two of my normal ones! Course I could've saved it and had a nice little pipeline to protect me from unexpected circumstances. Screw that.

Too tired for review responses this chapter. I'll do a double-dose next chapter, honest. It's not like there were all that many to worry about, anyways. Not that I appreciate them any less… as always, its these reviews that make me feel like my writing is worth it.


	6. Finding Utopia

Chapter 5: "Finding Utopia"

For most, a trip to the so called "Relic Castle" would mean days riding a Numel along with one of the bedouin caravans that crossed it, with several stops in the makeshift shelters that dotted the desert to take refuge from the frequent sandstorms. But most did not have Logan's control of gravity permitting near-supersonic flight, or the ability to encircle themselves with a translucent pink bubble to protect themselves from the sandstorms. This would have been true for her had she come alone: With two feline companions, there were very few natural hazards that could slow her down. Granted, she was the one doing all the work, but that was only because this trip was so critically important. In any other case, Logan would've seen this as a parenting opportunity, trusting Jamie or Miya to pilot them and shield them from the torrential winds. They didn't always succeed, but she was always there to catch them if they were about to fall. The trick was never looking like she would: occasionally letting them get a little bruised. That way, they would feel genuine danger was a consequence for failure even when their conscious minds told them they were safe. It was a technique the Eldest had mastered, but Logan was still about as good at it as Jamie was with shapeshifting. The older mew wasn't naked, as most mew usually were, but wore a fairly heavy harness across her back, a sealed and faintly glowing tube affixed along her spine as to minimally restrict her movement. Miya had argued that bringing the object was a waste of her energy, but Logan thought different. Just because she hadn't ever needed to call for reinforcements while exploring did not mean she wouldn't ever need to.

"This is a really stupid idea Logan." Miya said from the bottom of the bubble, looking down at the swirling sands of the desert, far below. "The eldest said not to go. He'll be mad at you again if we do."

It was quite clear how likely that was to stop her, and the other (smaller) ball of pink fluff seemed to realize that better than Miya, because Jamie spoke up next. "Who cares what he thinks. He already hates us." She looked away from Miya as she said that, and towards Logan. The older mew didn't say anything, just looked away sadly until something beneath them caught her attention. The desert resort had few people visiting this late at night, and even fewer lights to indicate where it might be. Logan didn't need either, and within seconds, they'd gone from outside in the torrential sandy downpour to sheltered somewhere dark, deep beneath that sand.

Jamie reacted with immediate relief, breaking away to land on the ground, grateful to be back to somewhere solid after the hours of flying. But she would not get her rest yet, as Miya pulled her an inch or two away from the ground, scolding her. "Jamie! Are you trying to get us killed? Don't you know the lower levels of this place are full of traps? Logan only told us like a million times…"

Her younger sister did look a little sheepish, though she stuck her tongue out in response. "I wasn't gonna touch it…" She lied.

Logan just smiled. "Let's just… stick to the shield. I'm not sure if we're deep enough to meet any real traps yet, but safety is always best." She encircled them with the barrier again, which obviously did not take much effort from her, even if she was still panting from the teleport. They wandered for what felt like hours before they found the way down, a feat that would have been impossible without their vastly superior senses. But the hollow lower levels could not hide from internal sonar, and where finding the way was not possible, making one with some carefully applied force certainly was. And Logan had not been misinformed about the traps, but they lacked anything close to the force to penetrate the barrier of a mew nearly in her prime. Logan's little charges were not of much help, but she had known from the beginning they wouldn't be. This was about learning. She could not be the only mew to see this: There had to be other witnesses. Despite what the legend said about only allowing one…

Eventually, they reached their target. "The seven-hundred and seventy steps." Logan said, hovering over the precariously steep descent. The hand-chiseled rock stairs had been protected from erosion by the shelter of the ruins of the castle overhead. But still they looked dangerously steep, impossible for any normal person to traverse.

"Why that exact number?" Jamie asked, hovering very close to the edge of the bubble. Miya whined in an exasperated fashion "Who cares? There's alot. That's all that's important."

Logan didn't say anything for several seconds, merely levitating them down. The ceiling was oppressively low, as though it were actually built for pokemon with a stature like theirs. The shield had to shrink away most of its internal volume as they went, pushing the occupants close to one another. "This makes no sense…" Logan muttered about halfway down, illuminating their way as she had been by a floating spark of blue light somewhere outside the shield. "if this part was built by mew, why did they use hand-chisels?" She paused a moment, reaching out to feel the markings left on the sandstone, who knew how many eons old. "But this is much too small for humans. So… who built it?"

There was a strange light somewhere off in the distance now, flickering orange and green like a dying flame. The air outside their shield was quite foul now, so foul that it was impossible for the shield to keep the scent completely out of their sensitive feline noses. Miya was quite vocal about her displeasure, but Logan ignored her. The frightening thought of what might be /making/ that smell was far too prominent in her mind for her to be bothered by Miya.

"I'm tired." Jamie abruptly squeaked in her ear, small mass pressed to her side already by the close quarters. "Can't we take a nap here? This city-whatever will still be here after a nap." She turned to face Logan, baring big eyes as prominently as she could. This trick usually worked on her adoptive mother, but it wasn't going to this time, as the elder mew shook her head.

"Sorry Jamie… this is important. We slept five hours ago… if you want to sleep, you'll have to do it alone. Or…" She glanced over to Miya. "Are you tired too? Maybe the two of you should curl up for an hour or two…" Miya had no intention of admitting that she felt weak over such a short time, but couldn't hide it from her expression, or her thoughts, and Logan nodded sadly. "Yeah. Don't worry, I won't drop you. Just get some rest… it could be a long way down." It was. Logan floated slowly down the massive blocks for what felt like hours after her tiny companions were fast asleep, curled around one another just behind where Logan carefully held them. The faint light blazed off all the surfaces as Logan neared the bottom, as dull sandstone was transformed into something like glass from constant exposure to near-mantle heat. They were miles down now: and the gas that surrounded them was nothing like air. Twice her little bubble of air had become so full of that putrid odor that it became unbreathable, and Miya even woke with a little wheezing cough. Logan solved this problem by shunting the contents of their shield outside of it, and replacing the air with new air obtained via teleport from the surface. Both times she had to rest on the ground for several minutes afterwords, panting hard. The last of these times she rolled onto her back completely, only sitting up after several minutes, gently grooming her little mews one at a time to calm herself. Logan was quiet as she did this, gently untangling Jamie from her elder sister and licking the dirt from her fur, spending great care at this mundane task despite the urgency of her situation. It gave her peace to do something that felt so normal and routine, and brought her back to all the other little mew she'd treated this way. She remembered when Bit had been this small, a situation that had not persisted long. That little AI-turned-organic had soaked up knowledge like a sponge, and quickly outpaced Logan's growth in almost all respects. Logan thought briefly about her first daughter, and had to fight the urge to cry as she did. With thoughts of her second daughter, now long dead, it was a fight she did not win. Jamie woke briefly as a tear or two splashed her, sitting up groggily. This was not unusual: the same moisture would've instantly driven Logan fully alert, but Jamie was a very heavy sleeper. Even now she opened only one eye, mewing pitifully.

"_I was dreaming…"_ The furball squeaked into Logan's mind, along with a dreadfully fearful image. Logan saw Jamie in her human shape, scarcely twelve, sprinting terrified down a long, glowing glass hallway. The older mew recognized it as the interior of a starship, though she did not know which one. Behind the human Jamie was a gradually growing wave of black sludge, swallowing everything it touched in a wave of sparks, screaming, and then silence. Jamie passed many working to build the ship, some of them mew, who were swallowed in the black, leaving only the echos of their screams. These dreams were becoming more and more common for Jamie, and the thought of them nearly made Logan cry again. The worst part was that nobody knew why they were happening: The eldest was one possible exception, but he wouldn't speak to Logan anymore, let alone Jamie. "Shhh…" Logan stepped briefly into the little mew's dream, taking the form of one of the construction workers. That worker dropped her plasma-welder without regard for the consequences, shouting to Jamie as she ran, and keeping up with her while everyone else around them was swallowed. "Follow me!" She shouted, and the terrified Jamie obeyed, following them into a part of the ship Jamie did not know. Logan didn't know this design any better than Jamie did, but she fed the necessary details to the poor girl's brain: Details she invented. This was the worst part about these dreams. There was no psychological cause Logan could determine, but no outside influence either. The one good thing about them was that they seemed no different than ordinary dreams: Easy for Logan's conscious mind to alter.

"I don't know who you are!" Jamie protested, running more urgently now. "But it's getting closer, see? We're not going fast enough!" She was right: the wave of untargted gnawing death was feet from them now, and getting closer. But so was their escape: a tiny doorway already mostly closed.

"Quick!" Logan shoved Jamie through the doorway, where several soldiers and even more mew waited, friendly faces Jamie would know well. Logan's own face was among them. The worker paused at the doorway, ignoring Jamie's scream of protest as she stayed outside long enough to force the controls to shut, smiling back at Jamie through the crack as it sealed shut. Logan winced then as the pain of the dream-wave hit her, shivering at the feeling of invisible death. It passed quickly though, as she pulled herself from Jamie's mind. The little mew had already closed her other eye, and her pulse was slowly settling down. Most of these dreams ended in poor Jamie getting killed by something or other, at which point she would always awake in tears and need to be comforted. It was a testament to how tired she was that she was brave enough to ask for sleep at all. But she _was _growing fast now, and a developing mew brain needed nearly eighteen hours of sleep a day. Those demands could be delayed, but not ignored.

Miya had not allowed herself to get nearly as dirty as her younger sister, but Logan did not exercise any less care in grooming her. Jamie's life as a mew had begun as a troublemaker, a rule-breaker by the fact she was even alive. Miya had more or less taken that role upon herself, and with no prompting from her younger sister, since Jamie had been a human infant at the time. Miya had been an eager student for her first few months, but once she had learned the bare necessities: levitation, short-range teleportation, she had stopped paying nearly as much attention to Logan's teaching. Logan thought it was herself at first: After all, no other student had failed before. It had to be her responsibility. But handing Miya off to other mew for teaching hadn't worked either, and the kitten proved too mischievous for any other mother to be willing to take her in. That brought her back to Logan, where she had remained up till now. Logan had thought her a nearly hopeless case, and even considered taking her to the Tree of Beginning to live with another mew her own age in relative safety… then Jamie had showed up, and Logan discovered the one force that /could/ motivate Miya.

Envy. When Miya saw that Jamie had finally begun to master her powers, after being born with nothing and more than a decade of failure, the other mew finally got her act together. She wasn't about to let herself be passed-up by some kid that was only a mew by accident. And to her credit, she hadn't been. Miya had been an energetic student ever since, and even picked up a few things from other mew. Logan was not quite ready to trust Jamie's care to anybody else yet though… aside from her sister.

But she could only justify wasting so much time here. There was still an entire /city/ to survey! How could she get all of that done before collapsing from exhaustion herself? There was no time for rest here… only action. Reluctantly, she lifted back into the air, and returned the kittens to the position they'd been in before, curled up around one another. It was time for the serious work to begin.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adam was pleasantly surprised at how easy avoiding this particular predator actually ended up being. The snake made the mistake of targeting Lumine first… and the wild pokemon was both too fast and too smart to allow herself to be bitten, jumping into the air and gliding back to the ground several feet away from where she had been, much too far out of reach. Adam's eyes widened a little at the presence of such a large and dangerous predator, his tiny heart beating rapidly but mind too frozen to act. He was fortunate that Lumine was there, because her shouting roused him from his stupor enough to follow after her. "To the big trees!" She was calling, alternating between scampering along and jumping from large objects, gliding remarkably far and fast from such little lift. Adam did not like that idea, though… he was not a very good climber, and knew many snakes could be.

"No! I'm not an Emolga, I can't… let's go to Relay's house!" Once he got moving, Adam found scampering around on four paws to come remarkably easy to him… or maybe running for his life just made it easier not to think about. Either way, that was what he did.

"Humans are worse than being eaten!" His companion called back, darting along beside him now. Though she protested, she did not break with him when he turned for the human-made path instead of the high grove of trees. Had Adam not been running for his life, he might have realized the implications. But he was, so he didn't, and merely called back. "No humans anymore, remember? Christian is gone… has been for weeks! It's just my sister and I!" This seemed to calm her, because he didn't hear another protest from her again during the short run across the path. His thoughts were far from coherent as he ran, constant glances back to see how close their pursuer had managed to get. The answer was always the same: Too close.

As they reached the house, it seemed fortune was smiling on them again, because Samantha had just opened the door (a difficult task for someone barely a foot tall), likely to check on him. She rose onto her back legs as motion stirred at the far edges of her vision, calling out to him as they darted up the hill, now only leading the Seviper by a few feet. There were no questions between them: Whatever Samantha had been meaning to ask choked back in her throat as she saw what was happening, and she had already started to act on Adam's next instruction before she heard it. "Get Ion!" She turned, darting back into the cabin, and hastily hammering on the keys. Christian's netbook began to switch out of standby, much too slowly for Sam's shaky nerves. It was all she could do not to hammer the keys so hard that they snapped, or accidentally discharge some of her electricity into the machine.

WORKGROUP : ~ DR_CHRISTIAN_SELIM $ cc -o a . out ~ /Storage/misc/Ion . pkmn

WORKGROUP : ~ DR_CHRISTIAN_SELIM $ a . out

Samantha couldn't make herself type fast enough, having to struggle and erase several mistaken characters when her ill-equipped paws depressed too many keys at once. Despite what one might think, the tiny netbook keyboard was actually much better for a six-foot human than a one-foot pokemon without opposable thumbs or fingers she could easily control. Even using the keyboard for a month and she still made errors every now and then… many more when she was under pressure. The matter-synthesis was much faster, taking only a handful of seconds to solidify Ion's barely solid form, which was more than enough for him to intercept the predator, getting as big as he could right as Adam and Lumine ran under him. There was no battle… the Seviper had already chased them a fair distance: A battle was just too much work over one meal. With angry hisses of protest, it retreated into the undergrowth, seeking another meal.

Adam and Lumine collapsed together barely an inch inside the door, panting horsely as Samantha and Ion went about the difficult task of closing the door. But he didn't watch, didn't even realize he was resting his head on her back until she sat up, forcing him to pull away a little. She didn't seem to mind though, or even to have noticed, smiling with remarkable energy after such an exhausting chase. "That was pretty good, Adam! Didn't think going into somewhere humans live would ever be a good idea, but… guess I was wrong about that. No way that snake will ever find us in here!" She stood up on her hindpaws, taking a few wide glances around the room, before darting over to the now-closed door and feeling it. "Or anything for that matter! This thing could probably even stop water!"

"It does." Samantha said, sounding much less physically but much more mentally exhausted. She'd been working all day trying to read the data on their disk, but still made no progress. Which was about as much progress as she usually made. "Not a drop of rain in here… in fact, we drink the water that falls on here. Which hasn't been much since we got here, but…" She was at Adam's side, unable to resist the urge to check on him. Samantha helped him to a more alert position on four paws, and rolled him over, quickly checking him over for injuries the same way he did for her whenever anything of any significance happened to her while separate from him. It was instinct, pure and simple. They simply had a much better chance of surviving if they were both healthy, just as they would if they'd both been wild pokemon. Neither Samantha nor Adam felt compelled by instinct, or trapped by it as their predecessors to pokemon transformation had been, but a month of life as a complementary pair had taught them many important lessons.

Lumine seemed to notice this attention too, moving slightly closer to Adam. The Minun didn't seem to notice, but Samantha did, her ears going instantly alert, and staring openly at Lumine for several seconds. Then she realized the absurdity of what she was doing and turned away, frowning to herself. Having won this little contest, the Emolga continued where she left off. "This place isn't as big as it looks on the outside, though. I wish I'd been brave enough to come here with Relay. It doesn't seem nearly as frightening as it smelled. He always told me… but I never listened."

Adam watched her, nodding when she finished. "Yeah, it's quite safe. Just my sister and I here… and Ion. Couldn't forget about him." Adam glanced up at the Porygon2, who was already preparing to return to hibernation. Electrical power was quite scarce here… much too scarce for him to be active constantly. He wasn't really matter, after all, but an energetic matrix of psudo-matter, electrons held in a grid by magnetism and made to imitate other particles, whole atoms even. It took energy to maintain that grid, energy he usually drew as a faint charge from any outlet. But here…

"Of course, Adam." He said, looking down very briefly at the two, hovering just over them, and near the computer. "Ion is happy to see you again… but for both of us, must rest now. Wake up later." And that was it. He might need help being woken up from standby, but he needed none to go back into it. Adam longed for their powerful university computers, strong enough for Ion to exist actively inside them, instead of being stored like any other program.

"Can I stay here?" Lumine asked suddenly, breaking her eyes from the point where Ion had been, and looking back at Adam. "I mean… I don't live with my… I don't like with anyone anymore, and you two seem really nice! I promise I'd be real useful… I know where everything is, and which berries are in season right now, and where you can sometimes scavenge some meat if you're lucky…" That last didn't impress Adam or Samantha much, who hadn't eaten anything remotely related to meat since their transformation. They had tried, but… rabbits were not rodents, much as they resembed them. Meat was not on the diet. But that did not mean Adam was thinking clearly, and he answered first. "Sure you can! I mean…" He glanced back to Samantha, and hastily added, mostly to her. "You were Relay's good friend before he had to leave, I'm sure /he/ would love to let you live here with us. This is his house we're living in."

That logic worked at shutting Sam up, at least until later that night, when Lumine had fallen asleep curled up in Relay's old pet-bed, and Adam and Samantha were sitting awake on Christian's. "You really are an idiot, you know that?" Samantha whispered over to him, leaning much further from him than she usually did. The pillow was big enough to basically serve as their bed, but instead of resting her head gently on his, she was as far towards the end as she could go, only facing him to speak, her arms folded again. "You left to get water, not a wild pokemon. Just you wait… she's going to short out our power systems. Or worse, the laptop, and kill Ion…"

Adam shook his head though, glaring. "Life's difficult out there… you saw what happened! I nearly got eaten same as she did… and there was more to it than that." He was sitting up now, fully alert. Not that he had ever dreamed he would get much sleep away from Samantha. "She's really clever… smarter than a pokemon should be. We've talked to them before… like that Seviper that tried to kill us. She's different… and I'm trying to understand why."

"Ooooooooooooooor." Samantha whispered, her voice twisted by a tone of obvious sarcasm. "If we were human, and she was human, I'd know exactly what you were thinking. Smooth move to get into her pants, you think. Except she doesn't wear any, and neither do we." There was a slight measure of disgust in her voice, but it was vastly outpaced by envy. Adam didn't really blame her, and it didn't take him much to understand. Different as she looked, Samantha was /him/. Or… a copy of his memories, anyways. His memories /and/ his attitude towards relationship, which was not all that different from most college students. Adam hadn't really thought about how that desire would be effected by being a different sex. He had a hard enough time not thinking about it while being a pokemon… and he didn't want to admit it, but he would not have been nearly as sympathetic towards the natural plight of any male wild pokemon, no matter whose friend it had been. He liked to _think _that being as smart as Lumine was would make the difference with any pokemon, but… he couldn't be sure.

"I'm not trying…" He scurried to the edge of the bed, glancing down at where Lumine was sleeping, curled up in Relay's old bed, with Relay's plush that looked like a smaller version of himself, and smelled even more like him. "Just look at her. She's not interested in me, anyways…" With all the affection she evidently felt for Relay, Adam was amazed they hadn't become proper mates. For all Relay /was/ smarter than a pokemon, it was on about the same level as Lumine. For all he talked about once being human, and Christian had talked about finding a way to change him back, he didn't act or think very human. And pokemon were remarkably… forward… with their emotions. He didn't mention this to Samantha, though. She had enough flak to throw at him if she wanted to. "Pining over Relay." He eventually squeaked out, rather than let the silence continue. "She only wanted to stay with us because it's safe. And… maybe she'll be useful. She's been an electric type alot longer than we have… maybe she can charge the batteries of this place without damaging them, like we're afraid to try…"

Samantha didn't say anything for a long instant, merely looking down at the sleeping Emolga. After a pause, during which she rested her head tiredly on Adam's shoulder and sighed, she whispered. "Whatever. I know we both hate kids, though. I'm not helping you take care of a breed of flying squirrels if you have them. You're on your own."

Adam laughed at the obvious joke, but not as energetically as he usually would. Something about that thought didn't disgust him nearly as should have.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If the tunnel down here had been built by something not much bigger than a mew, then the place the tunnel led had been built by a species bigger than any pokemon Logan knew. _This_ construction looked like the work of her people: Solid volcanic (or nuclear) glass poured over everything, making a sort of shell that even covered the lower levels of the tunnel, making it dreadfully clear which had been built first. Into the glass had been set an enormous door of two halves, stretching at least a hundred feet into the sky. Light poured /through/ the surface of what they stood on, light Logan knew with dreadful certainty came from the mantle itself. She shivered at the thought of that unfathomable pressure on this ancient barrier, and wondered if there was any city left to see at all. She knew mew technology was hearty, but… was there really a machine that could function unmaintained for hundreds of millions of years? The heat, which had been comfortable at first to their tropically-adapted bodies, quickly became a nuisance, and would have threatened their lives were it not for the protection of the shield. Despite being more than half a century old, Logan was feeling the strain of it now. Scrubbing their air, shielding the heat, some of the light, fighting gravity… it was wearing on her a little, and the droop of her tail made that fact dreadfully obvious. Still, she had to keep moving. But how could they lift doors this size? What was worse, they were made of a strange and ancient metal, the same one saturated into the glass, which prevented her psychic senses from making even the slightest progress through it. She was not sure if the open passageway to the surface would be sufficient to teleport through it anymore… the interference from below was almost maddening now. She wondered if the magnetic field coming through the glass would have been strong enough to levitate a politoed based solely on the faint charge present in the water in its body. Probably not… but it was strong enough to make concentrating very difficult.

With a slight sigh… she knew the quartermaster would not be happy about what she would call the "careless waste" of something so valuable on Logan's "purposeless wandering", the mew uncorked the tube and grinned at the immediate flood of relief as her air was pumped full of adrenal vapor. That was her own idea… what wasn't was the object that emitted the light, a faintly glowing tube of carefully spun glass laced with a psionic nano-computer several centuries more advanced than anything humanity had ever built on their own. Of course this one had been manufactured within a human factory, largely to human specifications. Exposed to Logan's best approximation of normal atmosphere, the fair glow became a vibrant burning, nearly strong enough to overcome the volcanic fire all around them. Nearly.

"Simulated Adaptive Matrix is online." Were the first words that echoed through Logan's shield, reverberating along its membrane to echo through the entire gigantic chamber, a placid emotionless female tone that sounded only a little artificial. "Pat personality file loaded and active. How may I be of assistance?"

Logan paused at this question, but not long. She had never used a unit like this before for moral reasons, though she had seen them demonstrated for her in laboratory tests. As she understood it, the very basic AI had the entirety of human and much mew knowledge stored away in its microscopic memory core. The only problem that had yet to be solved was life-expectancy: Even in the lab under conditions controlled by mew, these AIs could not last more than a week, in the field you were lucky to get half of that time. Having that much knowledge was incredibly useful, particularly when moonstone-based crystals installed in the module could exercise psycic powers similar to a mew. The trouble was: having all that mental power was overwhelming for the effectively newborn mind: Eventually its processing time between requests would grow longer as it took in more and more information: until it ceased taking in information from the outside at all. Logan knew with deep regret that there was a room somewhere, where Bit took each and every unit that had ever been used, carefully providing them with power and maintenance, in the futile hope that they might one day be saved. In the old days that might have been an easy task, but now… Their resources could not be diverted from the much more important task of ensuring even a small fraction of the earth's population would survive.

"Sam unit… are you equipped with any of the information from the mew database?" Logan asked, her voice faltering for a moment under the effort of all this heat, this light, this pressure… to her, it seemed like the answer came with a measure of hesitation, almost as though the supposedly emotionless speaker was afraid of what might happen if she answered truthfully. Still, the units had no capacity to lie, and this one didn't.

"Affirmative." The placid female voice said, slightly less placid now. Though there was just a hint of pride as she continued. "This unit is a model 15-A simulated adaptive matrix. My combined archives currently total 91.7 yetabites of indexed information, and 198 quatillion gigabites of non-indexed information. Of that, 98.3% is the firstborn data matrix."

"I need you to access the firstborn data matrix… you won't be able to help me without it, as useful as your tactical advice probably is."

"Be advised…" The voice hesitated another moment before continuing on, but did so diligently. "Accessing the firstborn matrix is restricted and sealed. Doing so has been known to severely impact the operational lifespan of SAM units. Further, it has been known to impact the personality simulation's effectiveness at recreating human behavior. Irongate Innovations cannot be held responsible for any malfunctions of this product as a result of accessing this information."

The mew nodded sadly. "I understand… but I'm going to /die/ without your help, and my little mews too! This pressure… heat… it's far worse than I expected, and I don't think I can… stay awake much longer. Access the firstborn data." There were a few electronic noises from behind her, and for an instant the tube she wore got very hot, venting the excess heat through the opening.

Then the voice answered, somewhat resentful, and also quite a bit more /real/ sounding. Much more than the mere simulation of a person now. "Firstborn data has been analyzed and integrated." She said. "Waiting on your order."

Logan would have been very cautious to entrust her life to technology like this in the best of circumstances, without a proper test. But Bit swore by them, and they had already saved many lives. There was no alternative. "Are you capable of taking over the operations I'm currently performing?"

The machine answered diligently. "Internal atmosphere at 1.02 ATM, 108 degrees fahrenheit, atmospheric concentration 75% nitrogen, 10% oxygen, 4.99% Carbon Dioxide, and .01% _unidentifiable contaminants_. Or would you prefer livable conditions?" There was a bit of a smirk in the question. Could Logan hear a smirk?

"If you can do better… get as close to subtropical air as you can. Keep gravity repelled, and make sure we don't drift. Can you do that? I'll feel much better after a few hours rest, and I don't want to risk a teleport to the surface through whatever this stuff is made of."

"Affirmative. Long-range accelerated quantum tunneling through _unknown mineral substance_ is not recommended. But homeostasis should be easy. You just sleep… leave the work to me." But the mew did not hear this little twist of sarcasm… she didn't hear, because Logan was already fast asleep, curled protectively around her kittens.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next thing Alvin saw was significantly easier on him than the terrible visions he was forced to watch over and over within the pokeball. Well… maybe the second to next thing he saw. The first thing he saw was the metal floor, which be promptly bent down onto and emptied his stomach. Since when did pokeballs malfunction like that? Had it been his own mind doing it? Maybe watching his friend tortured in front of his eyes had done it, or maybe the strain of his old rival acting homicidal for practically no reason. He had seen Averett's face over and over again in his mind, and demanded each time. "What do you want with me! What did I do to make you want to kill me?" Averett had always been slimy, but he had never stooped so low as to be willing to kill a totally innocent pokemon just because he knew his death would mean something to Alvin. He was a backroom dealer and a corrupt businessman, but a murder? At least… that was what Alvin had thought. He wondered as he wiped the vomit from his fur exactly what had happened to change this man into a far more hideous monster than Alvin himself would ever be, no matter how strange Izzy's plan had made him look.

But when he sat up, he forgot about that, even forgot about the awful smell of his own stomach-juices. Izzy was there, smiling sadly down at him, with a healthy and energetic Sparks resting on the counter beside her, looking worried and slightly off-center, but otherwise alright. Then he noticed that the floor of the room they were in was moving… and the agitation caused his already uneasy stomach to rid him of whatever was left. He bent down again, but not for nearly as long this time, emptying his insides with a few purposeless dry heaves, whimpering a little between each one.

"Here." He barely managed to hear, as he lie there in the disgusting juices, too emotionally and physically drained to move. The voice was sweet and melodic though, enough so to loosen his mind a little and help him to hear the rest of her words. "Drink this. It should help settle your stomach." He felt a warm container pressed into his hands, and he was too weak to even look up at the speaker. Alvin took the container without objection and drained it in several long swigs, finding it did exactly as she said. With each swig, he felt a little calmer, and somehow more energetic as well.

"W-what's in this?" He asked, coughing a little as he drained it, and dropped it into the disgusting mess that he had made of the floor. "It tasted absolutely horrible."

"One part herbal tea infused with chamomile." The voice answered, one small hand on his shoulder. How anyone could stand so close to this revolting mess and not be sick themselves Alvin did not know, but he was immensely grateful. "One part Hyper Potion. I don't think potions are really designed to be ingested, but the bottle said it was safe to eat."

"Tasted better than vomit." Alvin croaked, reaching up and touching the hand on his shoulder, very weakly. "But not much better."

Izzy pulled back, obviously quite embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I couldn't use any of the automated medical machines on you like I could with sparks… it had enough trouble with him. Should've heard it." She took on a slightly higher, whinier voice. "Genetic anomaly detected! Uncorrectable! Neural distention detected! Uncorrectable! Please contact a certified pokemon physician immediately!" With surprising strength, she pulled Alvin suddenly to his feet. He swayed for a moment, but caught himself on a table, and steadied after a few seconds. Except for the floor, which kept moving a little, dropping and rising a little at irregular intervals. To say nothing of the way the whole craft constantly vibrated. "I'm just lucky my dad didn't hurt you worse… I wouldn't know what to do if he had… leave you in a pokeball probably, until I could find someone willing to treat some freak's freak pokemon." Alvin opened his mouth to speak, but Izzy spoke again before he could, putting one finger to his mouth. "Don't say anything. There's a shower down there, third door on the right. I'll work on getting this mess cleaned up… you get yourself washed, then head one more door and turn left. We can talk /after/ you've had some real sleep. Don't worry about vanishing… I've taken measures… we can talk about them tomorrow."

Alvin wanted to protest, wanted to ask a million questions, but Izzy's feline face made it very clear how likely she was to listen to him, and he just sighed, walking slowly out in the direction indicated to him. As he passed into the hall, Sparks followed close behind, speaking energetically. But he barely heard the pichu. A hot shower did wonders for him… tiny as it was, with very little pressure, a shower was a shower. He had dirt that was from several decades to remove from his body, and nearly emptied the bottle of shampoo carefully grooming all of his fur. This was something he had never really considered before… by the time he had been alone as a pokemon before, he had never really thought about cleanliness the same way humans did. Pokemon bathed only as much as was necessary to ward off parasites and prevent infection, which was remarkably less than humans did. But getting himself clean enough that he /felt/ clean, with a full human body size of fur… that was a challenge. Alvin was sure he spent at least an hour on it, and was throughly impressed that any aircraft would have as much water as he ended up using for that purpose.

The tiredness was getting to him by then, too. As curious as he was to learn more about what had happened since their escape, about Sparks and Izzy's father, he didn't ask, and barely responded to anything Sparks said. He kept concentrating on the idea of a slim, uncomfortable aircraft bunk, with a thin mattress and chilly bedding. It sounded absolutely wonderful. He tripped once over some sort of electrical cabling as he entered the room Izzy had indicated, but was too exhausted by then to even feel the pain of it. He just got right back up and half-stumbled, half-crawled his way over to the bunk, and was asleep before Sparks could hop in beside him.

Alvin did not dream as he slept, which was a great mercy after what he had experienced within the time-divorced interior of a pokeball. He slept for over twelve hours, and only woke when a very reluctant Izzy poked her head into the room, ears twitching as she flipped on the light. "Wake up, Alvin. I'm sorry I can't let you sleep for longer, but… we're only an hour or so from the airstrip. We'll have to be off this aircraft /long/ before then if we don't want to get caught."

Alvin sat up more quickly than he usually did, recovering much faster than he expected from what he did not doubt was a great deal of oversleeping. He was equally surprised to see that he was fully dressed, in plain white fabric that seemed tailored to the unusual shape of his body. Had Izzy done that? His cheeks sparked a little involuntarily at the thought, but he stood up anyway, looking determinedly away from her eyes. He didn't notice the way his discarded towel, the one he had been wearing out of the shower and had fallen when he tripped over the cabling, was still lying where it had, untouched. He wouldn't realize the significance of that for a little while yet, just as he wouldn't realize the significance of the rows of faint raised bumps on all the floors and ceilings of this (and only this) room.

"Alright… I'm awake, let's go." He moved for the door, but Izzy remained in the doorway, and put out both her hands as he did, stopping him.

"No! Let's talk in here… it'll be simpler that way." She relaxed as Alvin shrugged, sitting back on the unmade bed he'd just been sleeping in.

"Okay…" He muttered, raising his eyebrows. He glanced once around the room before he spoke, searching for Sparks. "Where's…"

He didn't finish. A pokeball tossed lightly into his hand answered that question, with the unmistakable electronic hum of an active core. "The system I thought of for allowing you an indefinite stay outside your pokeball is too complex to work on two pokemon at once using an aircraft computer. I captured him as soon as he was soundly asleep. At the same time I captured you, actually."

"You… captured me?" Alvin asked, his tail standing suddenly on end at the thought. "But… I guess I must have just got lucky… no malfunctions this time. But… I feel so awake! I never feel like I got real rest after using a pokeball. Maybe the batteries are recharged, but… the brain isn't. Haven't had the time I need to… whatever people say you do when you're asleep. Sort out everything that happened to you during the day."

Izzy gestured to the largest machine, a computer console mounted to the wall. There was a single pokeball interfaced with it, an ultra-ball he recognized from the scratches on its surface as being the one Izzy had used to capture him back in the lab. It too had the unmistakable internal glow of occupancy. "But… how can I be out here if I'm in there?" He asked, moving over to it, and running a finger along the exterior surface of the faintly humming machine.

"You're not… but you think you are… that's my idea." She gestured to the dots all around the room. "These things are what's called 'mirage' technology. It's a sort of… solid holigram. I was told it was a very real-feeling simulation." She moved closer, reaching out and taking one of his hands, feeling the fur on the back, the raised pads and the faint stubs of claws. "I guess what they told me was true." She let go of him rather abruptly, averting her face to the computer so he couldn't see it. Was that slight embarrassment he saw in the way her ears twitched? Or had some sound merely agitated them? "This was how I figured we could be…" She trailed off, than hastily added. "This is how you don't have to be confined to your pokeball… not mentally. There are places we can go with huge grids of these things!" She couldn't help but giggle, walking over to the window and sliding the plastic shade open. A night sky filled with stars shone in on them, with a moon shining brighter than Alvin had ever seen it. "My dad must be furious about stealing this jet… it's his favorite, because of this very system." She gestured around again. "in flight _entertainment_ he called it." There was obvious disgust in her voice, but it lasted only briefly, replaced with more amusement. "Guess he'll have to make do with real people now. If he can find any."

Alvin smiled faintly, turning too, and following Izzy to the window, looking down instead of out. He looked over at her very briefly, at the way her clothes looked like his: Very precisely made to fit her strange body. Her tail snaked its way out from a hole cut for it, and her shoes were comic in size. Something else he noticed made him slightly sad, though. It wasn't just her clothes that had changed… Izzy was at least a year older, and that was just the way she looked. More mature now… her chest slightly harder for him not to look at, her lower body showing a little more of those female shapes. Alvin knew by now that she didn't seem to physically age the way most people do… how long had passed since last they spoke? This sadness turned suddenly into frustration, as he struck the plastic window-guard with a fist, a little firmer than he meant to. He was too upset to really notice the crack of plastic, and certainly felt no pain at it. "No matter what I do…" He said, quietly at first, then getting louder with every word. "No matter which plans we try, or what we do to try and fight it… I can't seem to get back into the normal flow of time!" He was shouting by then, and Izzy took several instinctual steps back, her motion so fluid he didn't even notice her actually taking the steps. "It's not fair! David… David sent me to the future to try and change things! He never said what, but… how is it I can change the future when I seem so eager to get there? Everything that happens takes me further and further from the people I care about!" His eyes watered as he thought about a joke he had made with his sister, many years ago. His sister that was almost certainly dead by now, and he hadn't spoken to in years. It wasn't a particularly funny joke, but had seemed so at the time. He had been the older brother, before the minor miscalculation or two that ended with him as a pichu. When he finally came home, more than a year later, he was at least a year /younger/ than his younger sister. A side effect of becoming a baby pokemon, he had supposed. But he had always joked that it would be a great idea to do it again… just keep on going back to a machine like that one whenever he got too old. Change into a pichu again, then change straight back. Ad-lib immortality. "I don't want to see forever!" Izzy just retreated a little further, ears pressed against her head in a vain attempt to block out the sound. That, and general confusion. Despite how she looked, she clearly could not read minds enough to understand the memories that had moved him into speech. "I've seen enough! And it's all awful… lots of death, and meaningless hatred… so much hatred… David's Exarchs, your father…" He held up the pokeball in his hands, thrusting it out to Izzy. She took it, stuttering incoherent replies. Alvin went on, ignoring her. "Why can't we all just be like him? Sparks never did anything to anybody, not a single thing! Why would anyone ever want to hurt that… how could they?" He sat down on the bed again, looking out the window in a way that suggested he might just try and break it. "If there's evil like that in the world, maybe it doesn't matter if we save it or not. Living isn't worth the fight."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Logan's shield had not faltered as she fell asleep, not even for a second. The SAM AI did not even need to maintain such a clumsy means of protection… despite having known how for only a few seconds. The unit made use of all its internal capabilities, drawing from a nearly inexhaustible power source to keep the three mew alive. Purifying the air came first… this was easy. She altered it recursively, moving molecule by molecule within a magnetic bubble of suitable size, even altering the airborne proteins to change the repulsive brimstone scent for one of the forest, replicating fruit and plant smells from her memory with artificial precision. Once the air was purified, keeping the mew floating in midair and keeping that air moving slow enough to feel livable was practically /boring/ to her. She did it dutifully though, and without complaint. It wasn't as though there was anyone awake to complain to. Or… was there? After three or so hours in the silence, during which the unit went into a nearly complete hibernation (To extend its lifespan as long as possible), there was no real change from the outside. She could _literally_ maintain these mew in her sleep, even with the immensely dangerous conditions just outside her bubble. But she was programmed to respond to conscious beings of all kinds, and that included the smallest kitten, who woke with a slight stir as she pulled away from her mother and sister, yawning and stretching in the free space within the bubble.

"That was a nice nap… I don't feel tired anymore." Jamie said to nobody, though clearly expecting Logan to answer. For once, the mew didn't… the SAM unit had intercepted the thought before it could wake Logan. The older mew needed every last second of sleep she could get… and besides that, she was curious. What would talking to such a young mew be like?

"Your mother needs to stay sleeping as long as possible. She should be fully rested within 600 billion nanoseconds."

Jamie glanced around in apparent confusion for a moment, before she noticed the object on Logan's back, and the way the tube was open, bright blue light radiating from it. "That's a weird way to say it." She squeaked, hovering around to look directly into the tube, her body stretched upward above it as she looked, manipulating her own internal gravity with practiced ease after being so well rested. "I guess Logan was really worn-out… she always said she hated the thought of using one of you, no matter how much trouble she was in…"

There was strong emotion plain in the response of the AI, which hesitated on the point of what would have been tears, if it was capibible of crying. Maybe not quite tears… it was a little more dignified than that. Just not much. "Your mother hates me? Hates… all the other SAM units?"

Jamie didn't seem to understand the significance of the response, but answered quick enough, rolling her eyes. " 'course not! How could mommy hate somebody she's never even met before? She just… didn't like the idea of what happens once one of you turns on… how quickly you die."

The SAM unit knew how little time it had… it was very carefully programmed to accept the inevitability of that demise, and not to fear it or hesitate in any way that might compromise its operation. Still it did everything it could to extend that time that /didn't/ compromise its operation. Exposing it to the complete mew computer archive had further unforeseen results, such as the realization of the nature of its empty, electronic existence. It was a wonder she answered with as little resentment as she did. "Didn't stop her though, did it?"

"Maybe not…" Jamie answered, turning away from the tube and looking down at the edge of the field, watching the glowing ground, and straying dangerously close to the outside, where the pressure and heat would've killed her in seconds. The unit grabbed her as Logan might have done, pulling her in on a psionic leash. The mew pouted for a few moments, but then she closed her eyes and felt out towards the edge with her mind, realizing that just because the SAM unit made an invisible bubble did not make it any less of a bubble… the outside was not safe. "… but if she hadn't woken you up, you wouldn't ever be born. Isn't being alive for a little while better than never being alive?"

The unit paused, and would've smiled as it surveyed its database for an answer. For once, the data came from a section that had been contributed by humans (although to be fair, much of the AI technology was also Human). She spoke with the voice of a small child then, silenced by many years. Another mind far away heard her as she spoke, and sighed. "You should be happy." The ancient voice said, preserved in data no human computer could read, though deciphering it was easy for the AI. "You're alive; And life is wonderful."

Jamie nodded. This conclusion seemed rather straightforward to her. It took no great processing power, and her mind lacked the volumes of stored research that SAM was re-examining now. "It is, isn't it? So… I don't think you should be upset with Logan. This might not be the happiest place to live your life, but…they wouldn't make SAMs just to let them have fun out in the forest or something for awhile… they make you to help us. This seems like a good way to help us, doesn't it? And you'll get to see a place nobody's seen in forever… you'll have knowledge nobody else has had in a really long time. And if… when you die eventually, you'll be able to leave something behind. Because your data-core will still have everything you learned. And believe me… Bit is really smart. Smarter than Logan by alot. Once we save the world, I'm sure she'll find a way to fix you, same as all your sisters that have already been used. She was a computer herself once… and computers never give up." Despite all of the SAM unit's best attempts to keep her asleep, Logan was waking up by then, and in her twitching movements woke Miya as well, who rose much more slowly than her adoptive mother. She was somewhat surprised to find Jamie already awake, since she usually didn't wake up without a great deal of pressure from her. There was no trace of that slightly rebellious, _just-give-me-ten-more-minutes_ attitude about Jamie now… and Logan paused a moment as she considered why that might be.

She settled on their surroundings, a positively beautiful kaleidoscope this glasslike material was, glowing with internal heat that came from far, far below, millions and millions of years old. But this beauty was only an illusion, fostered by how excellent a job the SAM unit was doing what had ground on Logan after a much shorter duration. The older mew stretched as she often had, and glanced over the two younger mew before speaking directly to the AI. "How long-?"

"Not quite long enough." It said, after a slight pause. Its voice struck Logan much more than it had the last time it spoke… it sounded very human indeed now. Disturbingly human.

"How difficult was it… should I take over, or can you keep going?" Logan smiled slightly at the pleasant conditions she was waking up in… nice and cool despite the heat she felt only a body-length to either side of her, the pressure far less than it should be at this depth. And the air… very familiar smelling to her, like the breeze that sometimes blew off the sea.

However knowledgeable it had become, the AI was still a computer, and it answered like one, albeit with notable smugness to its voice. "I'm currently utilizing two percent of my operational capacity. Physics calculations like this would take less than half of that if I could access the DAKOTA satellite network, but we're too far underground. I can maintain the field so long as my power supply remains charged." That was a lie though, and they both knew it. No SAM unit had ever come even close to operating as long as their power supply. "And I have a much faster reaction time than you do… logically, it would make sense to have me continue to maintain the field for you. I can respond to threats much more quickly, and protect you from them."

Logan nodded. She knew how fast an electronic mind could think, and how long it would take her to react to a /real/ trap. Something more dangerous than swinging blades and spring-loaded darts. All of those had been built by humans, and hadn't so much as slowed her down. But what sort of traps would _her _species use to protect a place they wanted left alone? "Alright. But I'll handle my own gravity, and Miya and Jamie will handle theirs. I don't need you to carry us." The reaction was immediate, and even Logan was caught off-guard for a moment by the pull. Fortunately not long enough to catch herself, and her daughters. It took them several long moments to switch to flying on their own. The older mew seemed somewhat annoyed, but she didn't make any gestures at the tube she was wearing, or say anything to indicate she was upset. "You've been operating all this time I was asleep… have you learned anything about our surroundings? I understand the sensors you're equipped with are very accurate."

"Affirmative. We have been observed since the moment we arrived. I suspect you were left alone because you showed no intention of trying to open the doorway. The pokemon has been consistently observing the door."

"Alright." Logan spent another moment collecting herself, then turned to Jamie and Miya, looking at them seriously. "I need the two of you to stay back here against the wall, okay?" She asked, struggling out of the harness that contained the SAM. She passed it to Miya, who wasn't nearly big enough to wear it properly, but did her very best. Logan helped her tighten all the straps as far as they would go. "If anything happens to me, turn around and fly straight up the stairs. Call for Bit: Tell her something happened to me. I'm sure she'll come as soon as she can."

Jamie wasn't happy with these instructions though, and took no pains concealing that fact. "Don't let anything happen to you, mommy." She said, glaring up at the bigger mew. "I won't want my last few days before being locked up in a bunker to not have you in them."

Logan nodded, turning away. "If the guardian can be reasoned with, you two might be able to come down into the city with me. If not… SAM unit, focus on keeping them safe, do you understand? Miya and Jamie are the priority."

"Understood. I'll make sure to allow it to burn you to a crisp if saving you would risk the kittens." There was a hint of sarcasm in the AI's voice, making it quite clear how likely she thought it was that whatever this guardian could do would challenge her even a little. Unfortunately, she was mistaken. For as Logan moved over to the door, the guardian abruptly arrived. It looked as though it had been teleported or phased into existence… for though the room had been empty moments ago, its entire volume was very suddenly nearly filled by a single pokemon, radiating far greater heat than even these deepest bowels of inner-earth could manage.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Another two week gap, another monster chapter. One of these days I'll _really_ learn to release a short chapter, than way I can post my content staggered and reliable. But I'm not going to learn this week… there was stuff that needed to be said in order to get the whole thing developed, and I barely said any of it as it is. I greatly enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope I offered at least a little enjoyment for those reading it. Sorry about missing another week… I think I'm gonna just screw the set release date and just post these things whenever they're ready, whenever that happens to be. As always, it's your reviews to motivate me to keep going. The knowledge that somebody else /somewhere/ is reading and caring about my work. I do put a great deal of thought and effort into coming out with these chapters ever week, and every week is a struggle with whether or not anyone actually cares. I'll respond to the reviews from chapter Three first, then chapter 4.

Kirby: Yeah, well… Sabrina has her reasons. Maybe she's just as bitter and uncompromising as the Eldest. She stays away from him out of pride just like he maintains the old policies of his extinct people for that same reason. He certainly doesn't actually analyze the consequences with something like Jamie. Just do exactly what the old mew would have done, because the old ones knew best. Alvin's problem was a common illusion that often afflicts the human brain: The maliability of time. In case people can't tell yet, time is a pretty important theme for Alvinm in this story. No matter what happens to him, it's always distorted somehow. Sucks to be him I guess. Yeah, Adam's TF doesn't really get that much investment… for Alvin in MM, that was all I thought about. Thinking about interesting and logical TF is difficult… when there was just one, it was easy. But with so many going on at once, Izzy and Alvin, and the all the mew stuff… I don't know if it will ever be as dedicated as it would be in a full-blown TF story. For that, I think you'll have to read MM.

AIR: Air? Hah. Lots of Air. Need air to live, most people do. There has been a little more time travel since now, but… I am bringing things towards a single unified time (sorry!) when the meat of the story takes place, and maybe some of these characters can meet the others. No way of knowing yet. The Eldest's attitude is definitely quite discouraging… I know I wouldn't want him leading my army if I had to fight them. Wonder how that's gonna turn out. Or… wait, I already sorta know. (folds arms) You ain't gonna crack me! I won't tell nothin' bout nobody. Sorry about the two chapters without the Fisher King though, if he's your favorite character. I don't want to make any hints or anything, but… I wouldn't count him out just yet. Or her. I wonder if it has a sex. So many legendaries don't…

DPL: Holy crap, long review. And don't even start me on your review for next chapter. Let's go through this thing and see if there's stuff I need to talk about… Izzy's about fifteen, at least in the way she looks. You have to think about all those mew genes she has. Just think about how slowly normal mew age… I haven't explicitly said how old she really is, but it's a safe bet that it's at least 1.2-1.7* as old as she looks. So in a way, she might be in her twenties. I guess that makes for two (Her and Alvin) who both age up backwards and sideways and frontways and backways. Perhaps more support for Kirby's Eddieshipping? Who knows. Sam makes a whole lot more sense than P-body, though. Everybody knows you can't have real science without humans. But I'm alot less sold on Nintendo wanting anything to do with me. I don't think confusing time-travely science-fiction is what they want the kids who watch/play pokemon exposed to. Now what it might do for their older fans, well… that's another issue.

Moving right along to this current chapter. A few more reviews on this one, which was a nice surprise. I don't usually expect so many with seeming to be barely alive at this point. Not that the site isn't improving and getting better all the time, but… not many pokemon readers anymore. Still, I write on. And write review-responses… on…

KragmoorBithen: Yay, a first-time-reviewer! Didn't think there were any new people alive anymore. Yeah, I do think quite alot about these sories and the universes they're a part of… but not alone. In case you didn't read the authors notes of some of my other stories (I mean, who did?), there's this great Skype group of people who talk about this sorta… inteligent (often Sci-fi and TF Related) stuff. If it wasn't for them, it would be alot harder to come out with a chapter every (2) week(s). For more information, anyone who's interested can drop me a PM. We've also got an RP forum that we do some stuff on… but both of them are as much general banter as focused discussion. Still, fun times all the times. In other news, I do enjoy the technical aspect of things, and though I do try and limit actually applying the specific details of my specific field, I can't really help it. We write what we know, as they say. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the story, and I hope you can continue to do so.

DPL: Another huge review, this time full of stuff I have to respond to, instead of mostly comments. Alright. (cracks knuckles) Here goes nothing. Sam in short for Samantha, although I think she prefers Sam because it means she has to think less about being a girl. As far as their signaling method goes, it's all scientifically possible based on what they're capable of doing, just extremely difficult. They got lucky to complete it. And I admit, keeping the abilities Porygon demonstrates in the anime without explaining them (ever, I never could) was a bit out of character for me. It doesn't make scientific sense, and I admit it. I went with it instead of teleport (which Porygon can learn before it evolves and keep) was just an attempt to have something different and interesting compared to teleporting, which everyone and their brother in the FD-verse is doing all the dang time. In a more realistic FD-verse, it probably would've teleported in, and teleported out again. Maybe it did… Adam did say he didn't have any memories of being in the computer… It's rare to have an in-game location, though? I'm pretty sure every location (with the exception of the Cabin) is based on a real game or Anime site. The Celadon Hotel, the university, Saffron, Celadon, Silver Town, Mt. Moon, Mt. Silver, The Mirror World, The Relic Castle… the list goes on, but I'm too lazy to look it up. This comment rings about as true as saying it's strange for me to reference real pokemon mechanics in my writing… I only do it in every chapter of every story ever. Now Granted, PD was a departure from this formula… but we're hopping straight back in for the Outcast. There was no magic for Izzy, though. Just cleverness. She's got an experienced Kadabra, remember. Since I won't go into this in the story, I'll just say what she did. Her father had Alvin's pokeball, which he forced from Izzy along with Sparks. She knew something was wrong, and started searching for Alvin right then. She didn't have any mew powers… but she did have Ophelia, which she's been using to teleport round the island since her youngest days. When she found someplace the guards wouldn't let her, she used her knowledge of the layout to just teleport past them. As to why they didn't notice her… that I haven't said yet, and I won't here because I do intend to talk about it in the story. From there, it was a simple matter to pick up Alvin's pokeball either left in the study, or teleport it off of her father's person and get it back. Sparks's of course, Averett handed to Alvin. And thus the mew magic is neither mew nor magic. I already explained all the Christian stuff, so I won't go into detail with it here. It wouldn't make sense anyway, it being from Skype-group RPs and not actual stories. I was happy to see every electrical rodent in a single chapter… one strange, really long chapter. This one's quite a bit longer, but…

Kirby: Another long review! (brainsplode) Through tongue-lashing from Kirby, seems like. Haven't got a review like this in… ever. Long ever. I guess I can only hope that this chapter was more worth reading(or re-reading), because my last one clearly wasn't. Not much in the way of specifics I can say, or respond to exactly. The last chapter was sorta a transitional one, but it was very fun to write, and I'm surprised you didn't enjoy it. It had a lot of stuff that just had to get done for the plot to continue, that weren't too much fun in and of themselves. Lots of fun things in this chapter, though. At least, fun to me. But that wasn't a good indication last chapter, so…

Mijj: Thanks! I'm glad to hear it… I'll definitely keep this trainwreck a rollin'.

AIR: Air. Hah. I said Air again. But… I don't entirely know, to be honest. I do have some guesses, though. Like it might have something to do with Geovanni, since he clearly still knew about mewtwo for Mewtwo Returns, so he might've known or suspected something about the island and changing memories. No way of knowing for sure though, since Mewtwo wiped my memories of writing it… I think what we're seeing with a lot of electrical rodents is multifaceted. While it's true that they're not that different from humans (genetically anyways… I forget the exact differences, but it's something like 70-75% genetic similarity or something, making them ideal as laboratory specimens). Alvin's being a pichu was just personal bias on my part, wanting to write a TF story about a pokemon I liked. Relay's was part of that genetic stuff I just talked about… with rodents making good laboratory specimens with short, easy-to-observe generations. Easy to beed. I only say this because his story won't ever be written, although we may learn more about him during this one, so I won't spoil anymore. I think Adam's TF came as much from his personality (Being really into electronics seems to be a good way to end up as an electric pokemon in the FD-verse) as it did from my personal biases… so I dunno. That isn't to say we won't see some more varied TF before the story's done. I wouldn't want to spoil anything, though, so my lips are sealed. Averret is acting quite unusually dickish, wanting to practically Kill Alvin despite having already won. I wouldn't want to betray his motivations by saying anything about it, though…

So there we go. Another gigantic chapter… these things are getting huge! I'm glad I'm not even /close/ to hitting 's length limit for content, because otherwise I'd be screwed now trying to submit this. Thanks again to everybody to reviewed, and I hope you'll consider doing so again in the future. To everyone else… see you again in two weeks or so, maybe sooner. Whooooooooo knooooowwwwwsssss?

Oh, and a big thanks to the Skype Audio review team for helping these chapters be free of obvious grammatical and spelling problems. I like me chapters clean, and I think the quality of this story is a whole tier above MM because of some simple editing.


	7. Unanticipated Examinations

Chapter 6: "Unanticipated Examinations"

In some strange way, Samantha had been absolutely right about at least some very small part of what would happen if they allowed Lumine to live with them. That very next morning it was she who woke them, well before an hour either of them felt like being awake. This doubtless would have provoked a more extreme response from Samantha, who wasn't about to hesitate to lash out at the newcomer just because she had been in the wild until yesterday. "WAKE UP!" The emolga was shouting, discharging little sparks into both of them.

This roused them much faster than mere words could ever have done, with Samantha shouting "It's way too early! Whatever you want, it can wait a few hours…" The light streaming through the window was cool blue, as it was just before dawn.

This response didn't placate Lumine, however, who responded by shocking them both… again. Adam's response was much more effective at convincing the Emolga to leave them alone, though he was just as tired and blinking the effects of it from his eyes. "W-what is it, Lumine?" He asked, his voice a faint croak. "What's so urgent? Didn't we talk last night about not waking my sister and I?"

She nodded, her face plainly terrified, as she bounced up and down on the pillow next to them. Adam somehow knew that she had waited some time, who knew exactly how long, and only finally went against what they had asked her when some overwhelming pressure had forced her to act. "I can't remember a word for it!" She shouted, turning her head to one side and wincing, as though under great mental strain in a failed attempt to solve some great problem. "There's lots and lots of pokemon! Scared, moving pokemon!" She wrapped her arms around Adam's arms, and tugged him along. "Come with me, Adam! I'll show you! I found a way up onto the top of the house, look…"

Sam grinned as the two moved off of the bed, intending to close her eyes and go back to sleep… she couldn't bring herself to close her eyes though, that usual empty feeling in her chest getting worse as Adam got further and further away. "Wait!" She sat up with a fearful squeak and hurried after them, dashing across the room and closing the distance between them, relaxing only once she had made contact with them. Adam's face calmed at that exact moment, his growing anxiety fading once the two of them were connected. Both had thought in great detail about this feeling, Sam much more than her twin. She was the one usually left behind, working on the computer while her brother went out into danger to bring them much-needed supplies. It was a difficult task… hopeless even, and much of her time ended up being spent in long-winded mental wandering about their predicament. Did other Plusle and Minun pairs feel as they did when they were separated? Was she really just a clone… some soulless copy that the human Adam had made for… who knew what reason. That was why she was so passionate to find out what was on the disk. She demanded an explanation from the person that felt like herself. The person whose memories she had, but she knew… /knew/ couldn't be her, not really.

The three pokemon had some distance to climb in the little maintenance closet, moving up on a tiny ladder that had evidently been put there to allow tiny pokemon just like them to travel onto the top level. The attic was mostly storage, with a little mattress tucked away in one corner. Lunmine ignored all of this, moving between the closely-packed boxes and over to the little round colored window at about their eye level, gesturing out. "See? That's what I meant!"

Adam was amazed the sound alone had not woken him: now that he saw it… it looked like hundreds of pokemon, maybe thousands, stretching out as far as he could see, heading past them from lower elevations further up the mountain, moving at a brisk walking pace. There were prey animals: the ground was carpeted with raticate, with pikachu and with their unevolved forms, moving in close-knit packs that got no closer than twenty feet to groups of other species. Unfathomable numbers of bug pokemon, swarming over and around the house and from tree to tree. Larger pokemon were there, struggling to move through this terrain that did not well suit them. Ponyta moved with relative ease, but Kangaskahn had more difficulty, struggling to find paths through the trees of sufficient size. As they watched, one of these last trampled Relay's dying garden in the back, crushing it with little regard along with the little wooden fences that lined the house. There were predators too, big and small, all given a wide birth by the smaller or more vulnerable pokemon, giving special protection to the youngest in their groups.

"But… but what are they doing here?" Adam asked, moving back a little from the window, as the yellow eyes of a ninetales briefly fixed on him, staring straight through the glass.

"They're going somewhere, obviously." Samantha said, moving away as Adam did, eyes downcast as she considered. "Whatever it is, it's dangerous enough that they're all moving… I… I hope it isn't a fire! I can't see any smoke, but… maybe the wind's blowing it the other way."

"I… I don't think it's a fire." Lumine spoke up, finally breaking from the window. "Cuz'… all these pokemon don't live in all the same places. If there was a fire that burned here all the way from the planes, I would have smelled it for days. I still don't smell anything." The squirrel stood on her hind legs, imitating the human-esque habits of Adam and Sam, who stared openly at this remarkable insight from such a (to them) stupid individual. Both could not object to her logic: no way they wouldn't have smelled a fire that big.

"Well something must've frightened them…" Adam muttered, sitting down and glancing once towards the window in obvious frustration.

"We could always ask…" Samantha said, eyes fixed now on Lumine. "We don't seem to have much trouble communicating with wild animals, and apparently they're not nearly as animal as we thought. Maybe we could just go outside and…"

"I'll do it!" Before they could say another word, the Emolga had found her way to the tiny window, and somehow managed to open the latch with her paws, tugging it open. She glanced back for a moment at their stunned faces, explaining. "If we go out the door, lots of pokemon might see how nice a place this is and want to live with you too… and you said there wasn't enough food for that. Don't worry, I'll ask someone friendly!" She ignored Adam's shouts of protest, turning back to the window. She seemed about to jump, fore and hindpaws gripping the sill. Nothing Adam or Sam said would have stopped her, but something did. The bang was so loud that she jerked backward out of the window, looking around as though she thought she'd been shot. The bang came again though, and from behind them.

"It's… I think somebody's knocking." Sam said, taking a few bounding steps back towards the ladder down into the cabin. Several more loud knocks sounded, and the other two electrical rodents followed quickly behind Sam, stopping at the ladder and staring down. It was a race to get to the door first, but Lumine won, aided by the fact that she did not have to actually climb the distance, jumping and gliding from the opening, landing halfway up the door, and sliding until she reached the knob. She somehow knew how to turn it, which she did as Adam reached it, Samantha close behind. This twist seemed to be perfectly timed with a fresh wave of knocks, which pushed the door ajar, very slowly.

Adam had never seen a stranger sight. As the group filed in, the sheer bizarreness of what he was looking at was sufficient to override whatever instinctual aversion he had to predators, and he remained frozen as the seeming massive pokemon passed. Lumine's survival instincts were much stronger… as the terrifing scent blew in, she scurried along the walls, vanishing into the attic with nothing more than a terrified squeak. The group had three members, two walking and one floating, though not on his own power. They were all eeveelutions, though the one riding the stretcher was so heavily bandaged that at first they couldn't see exactly /which/ eeveelution he was. They were all dressed in thin armor plates that seemed individually tailored to their bodies, protecting their torsos, camouflage-painted and faintly glowing with electrical charge. The Umbreon at the lead also wore a slim helmet, a little glass eye-piece over his eye constantly flashing with new information. The stretcher was actually a large piece of plywood, with several short tubes attached with adhesive to the bottom, causing it to float about a foot off the ground. Along with the injured jolteon (a fact they could only tell from the powerful electrical charge radiating from inside the bandages), there were also four little backpacks, with strange straps that seemed to fit clasps built into the back of the armor. A leafeon female brought up the rear, giving the floating construction a little push every now and again, guiding it with careful pressure to one side or the other. As she passed though the door, a swift kick of her hind-legs closed it behind them with a crack, before any wild pokemon could make use of the doorway and follow them.

"Lyons, get that cloak up and running! You can crack another SAM if you really need to, but… we might need her if the cloak doesn't work, so try and avoid it." The umbreon turned away from Sam and Adam as it spoke, but turned back once the leafeon set about her task, wiggling deftly out of the armor she was wearing and dragging one of the backpacks off the stretcher with her teeth. "Now" He stood uncomfortably close to them as he spoke, and though both were quivering faintly in fear, neither spoke up in protest. What could they say to these terrifying invaders, please go somewhere else? It was all the more frightening a prospect because, from their appearance and behavior, neither of the cheering pokemon had any doubt that these newcomers had once been human beings, perhaps very recently. They moved with such skill and decisiveness though, much more than either of them had, as though they had been trained to /be/ pokemon. "My name is First Lieutenant Black." There was no hesitation in his voice, but more than a little discomfort plain in what he had to do. He seemed to feel that speaking with Sam and Adam was somehow beneath him. Was it a species thing? Or… maybe it was just not wanting to try and explain something to clearly clueless civilians. "Special forces unit, Baltic class." If he weren't a predator, a predator with more predators who obeyed him, Adam likely would have interrupted him well before now. As it was, both of the pair remained fearfully silent, staring up at the armored face of what had once been a human being. "We're both lucky my unit found this cabin. Or… what's left of it." Adam had no doubt about which the Umbreon had indicated between the cabin and this strange combat unit. "The Cerulean and Pewter city infested are on the move. We don't know how they're acting with any sort of coordination after Mewtwo killed the Custodian…" At the clueless expressions from the two of them, he hastily added. "It doesn't matter now. The important thing is that a large number of very dangerous creatures are converging on Mt. Moon. We've been on the move since the DAKOTA satellites warned us they were coming, but…" He glanced back at the stretcher as its occupant moaned weakly from behind them. "we didn't expect nearly as many pokemon infested as there were. And behind them…" He shivered once, this special-forces operative trained in the dealing of death. "millions, we think. Not just Pewter city's or Cerulean's… there must be something here they want. Obviously we would have gone another way if we could… but the infested are coming from all directions. We were so lucky to be able to cover as much distance as we did. Lost the other two members of our team to the voidspawn pokemon, and nearly lost Specialist Pike…" another gesture behind him with a paw. "DAKOTA predicts the carrier Ephraim will be here in two hours to pick us up, and any living civilians or wild pokemon along with us, so that's you. Unfortunately… the fastest Voidspawn will be here in half of that time, and there are millions behind them."

There were literally hundreds of questions burning in Adam's mind, faced with this first individual with information from the outside, About Mewtwo, even. But given this newestest bit, Adam let all those questions fall away, at least for now. He ignored what the Leafeon was doing as he asked, ignored the way she had taken several large metallic objects from the various bags resting on the stretcher. "So shouldn't we go with the wild pokemon, then? Try and make it to the peak or something, defend it until that carrier thing gets here…"

The Umbreon seemed somehow confused at the way Adam spoke, but did not hesitate in his reply, though the eye behind his display seemed to be rapidly twitching behind the glass. Adam wondered if he was communicating or merely reading what was projected there. "Corporal Lyons is preparing our cloaking device… it's a very portable model, but the exchange we make is that it needs a solid object… it's a mechanism more than anything else. That's why we need your cabin: Something completely closed so that if any Voidspawn hit it accidentally, they won't pass through it straight into us. So… if either of you have any electronics experience, we could really use your help. Lyons knows what she's doing, but it's much too much work for one person to finish in one hour."

"I think it's more that Specialist Pike is our electronics specialist." The Leafeon spoke up, her forelegs propped on the side of the device as she painstakingly manipulated buttons that had apparently been designed for a pokemon to use, but looked neither very efficient nor very comfortable. She seemed uncharacteristically cheerful for someone who knew about the coming of impending death, and worked feet from a badly mangled comrade. "Hence the name. And the higher pay-grade, but I'm not so sure money really matters anymore. Where would you spend it?" She shrugged and got back to work, eyes narrowed in obviously intense concentration.

Lieutenant Black did not respond to his companion, but he did turn back in her direction, hopping up onto the stretcher beside the resting Jolteon and examining a little screen attached to the bandages around what Adam guessed to be his neck. He visibly relaxed as he read it. "Still stable, thank god. Second Lieutenant Carter was our doctor, and she was bringing up the rear when the voidspawn reached us. You two wouldn't happen to be doctors, would you? Lyons and I did the best we could for Pike, but we only have training in immediate first aid. We were hoping not to have to use our last SAM unit, since we will probably need it to maintain the cloak once more voidspawn arrive."

Samantha spoke up then, a little less timidly now that she was quite sure that these evolution pokemon had any intention of eating them. She had pulled back in fear when she saw the back of the Umbreyon's head, and the complex-looking device that was plainly wired straight into his brain, faintly flashing under the edge of his helmet. The leafeon had removed all her armor so as to move more freely as she worked, but she wore an identical device, wired into her brain as plainly as it was into the Lieutenant's. But she relaxed again as the leafeon spoke… whatever this thing was, it was evidently not nearly as disturbing as it looked, because they sounded healthy enough. More than that, they sounded… human? Much more human than either she or Adam could sound when they used the awkward pokemon language, with long-winded and complex descriptions filling the place of proper nouns. That didn't make what these newcomers said any less confusing to her, though. The term _infested_ was easy enough for her to guess at its meaning, but… who was the Custodian, and why did killing it somehow stop the infested from acting with coordination? What was a SAM unit, and how could it keep a cloak going by itself? DAKOTA she knew was an advanced military satellite network operated by an AI of the same name, but any further details were classified. She did smirk a little that something had the same name she did, but would not waste time asking about it. Instead she would respond, as simply as she knew. Leave the questions for once they had started working and had the downtime. "My brother and I are both quite skilled with electronics." She said, after a brief delay, during which she stood on her hind legs so she could look up easier onto the stretcher, addressing the Lieutenant. "We both dual-majored in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and were halfway to a masters with computers when we came down with the infection. Celadon city, about two months ago."

If the umbreon thought it was strange that a pair of twins also had the exact same educational background, he didn't say anything, just hopping down from the stretcher and gesturing towards his Leafeon subordinate as he struggled out of his armor. "See if you can give Lyons a hand, then. The input takes a little getting used to, but you two are electric-types, so you might be able to communicate directly with it the way Pike did." They could, as it turned out, and after a few minutes of fumbling around the two of them were working side-by-side with Lyons, an admirable task from a pair of such small, defenseless animals. Despite its immensely advanced design, the "cloak" was remarkably easy to operate. They had to find an object stored in its memory that could reasonably approximate the shape of the cabin… deploy all the emitters outside, and run the cabling between them and the cloaking device, which seemed to contain its own power supply. Once the device was active, and they'd moved outside to check it was working (the house was excellently camouflaged as a rather ugly and misshapen boulder), before bunkering down to a nerve-wracking period of waiting at the attic window. Adam's only consolation was that Lumine had returned from whatever corner she had been hiding in, and sat beside him as Sam talked with the umbreon on the ground floor.

"I'm glad you came up here, Adam." She said, watching the outside with apparent boredom. If she had heard the panicked conversation from below, she showed no sign of understanding the weight of the situation they were in, and the danger. Still, Adam was very grateful she hadn't run from the cabin at the first sign of trouble. The crowd of pokemon moving past them was very thin now, the weakest and sickest of the solitary travelers, and a few stragglers of more social species that had been left behind by their groups. "The umbreon and the leafeon might look friendly, but they're just tricking you! That's what…" She trailed off, sniffing, and huddling close to his side as she spoke. "That's what foxes do. Tricky tricky… so they can eat you when you're not expecting it!" There was a great deal of emotion in her voice, sounding as though she were on the edge of tears. It was a subject Adam did not press.

"I'm sure they are, but… these ones aren't foxes, not really. They're only foxes because of the soulphage, that's what they said. The sickness that changed Sam and I, once we'd beat it… I think pokemon are alot more resistant to it than humans are. So they were… inoculated." It was a little difficult to explain what he had learned from the special-forces unit to someone as simple-minded as Lumine, but… it was a testament to her intelligence that she could understand at all. But her face was blank at that last word, and he rephrased. "They made themselves foxes so they couldn't get sick, because they would have to go into a place with the disease." What they had not been able to explain to him (for what he suspected were reasons of security) was their mission. Why had they traveled into such a heavily infected area in the first place? If things had gone so far, if so many were dead and worse, what was there to do? He thought about going downstairs and asking again. Thought, until he saw what was moving from behind the little round window.

A single black outline moved swiftly through the trees, moving in shadow where it could. The shape was not entirely unfamiliar to Adam, and would have frightened him even were it not for its other… qualities. The thing that had once been a Mightyena had little of its fur left: what was left hung in matted clumps. Its skin was black and uneven, as though a layer of dead and rotting blood waited just below the skin, and though it moved very swiftly its movements were… irregular. There was something unstable about its skeletal structure. Its strides sometimes varied erratically, in some complex system of joints that Adam could only guess at. Either that, or some portion of its insides were rotten, just as had begun to happen to him when he was infected. Its proportions were all wrong, and though few would see even an untainted Mightyena as a beautiful pokemon, this tainted beast was truly terrifying. Phi was gone from its unevenly growing six limbs, which ended in dexterous claws more like a spider than anything. Worst was the aura that blazed from the thing, like a mostly-transparent unhealthy fire, whose awful shape blazed with unremembered nightmares. Adam was very glad the creature did not seem to see him, dashing along the ground without apparently using its eyes. A strange twisting insect that he was happy to see go. At least until he saw the trees behind it, and the unfathomable multitude that followed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Logan swayed for a moment as she looked up at the beast, an ordinary pokemon for this region enlarged to fantastic size. Volcarona's abilities were quite formidable, she knew… how much stronger would one be that was the size of a large building? She did not think long on what means had brought it into the chamber past a barrier that should've prevented teleportation. There were far more important considerations… such as survival. But the guardian was unmoving, its body so gigantic that it seemed more like a stone relic than a living pokemon. What plasmatic heat could such a being command? Logan had once heard that an ordinary Volcarona could generate temperatures near those that existed on the surface of the sun.

'_The voidship is sealed."_ Spoke a voice in Logan's mind, a voice more ancient and powerful than anything she had heard before… much wiser than the Eldest. That unfortunate elder-mew had survived nearly two thousand years now… this being had the wisdom of far greater eons. She had expected a mindless automaton to be protecting the gateway, some exceptionally powerful but also exceptionally stupid being, like the Regigigas her species had created to fight the Exarchs millions of years previously. She was mistaken. _"Tell your dying race they have done damage enough with the knowledge of their fore-bearers. Leave me to my rest."_

The creature did not turn its eyes from Logan, who quivered under the vision of such a massive… inexplicably massive creature. Under other circumstances, she might have turned around and fled as this being seemed to demand. Might have carried back the message she did not well understand and called it a day. But the stakes were too high… as dangerous as this being seemed to be, doing nothing was altogether more dangerous. Their plans to resist were noble, but they were futile. Unless she found a way of evening the odds, they were all dead. So instead of doing what she knew would make her safe, she did what might get all of them killed._'I can't do that!'_ She called back at the creature, though its mind was completely impervious to her and she was therefore unable to determine if the being had heard her at all. Could it even understand her? Normally the direct connection between two compatible minds was what made universal language possible… how could they communicate when there was no such contact? _'This is the only place left for us to look… all the life on this planet will die if you don't let me through! That must mean something to you…"_

The thing did not reply at first, its motions strange and inscrutable though they were clearly meant as some form of communication. Should she try and shape-change into a (Normal sized) member of its species, perhaps to elicit a more friendly response from the guardian? No… for all this thing looked like Volcarona, she could tell they had about as much in common as a lightbulb had with the sun. Both could hurt you if you looked straight in, and perhaps if you unfocused your eyes they would look more or less the same, but… the similarities were merely a function of like effects observed at very different scales. So she didn't try to transform and just stared back, waiting for the response. '_The ship was sealed for your own protection.' _The guardian answered after a moment, its voice so deep that Logan was shocked not to feel herself vibrating just to hear it. '_If you want me to end a million years and open up the way, then I must examine you. If you aren't of sufficient quality, I've been programed to terminate you. It would be much safer for you to return to the surface world and enjoy whatever time your species has left. This cycle and perhaps several afterwords have already been ruined by your efforts. Just go die in peace and reap the reward you do not deserve.'_

The mew stared back for a second, considering this creature. She knew that it was vastly more powerful than herself, perhaps even more powerful than the eldest. Even with the SAM unit's help, there would be no forcing their way through, or teleporting their way past or around this thing, even with the SAM's mathematically precise variants of the most experienced mew's powers. The only way through was complying to what this creature wanted… which she did not well understand. Just what was insufficient, exactly? What about her would determine whether this creature would allow her inside? She wished she could somehow get an idea of what it would say, what her chances were before she agreed… but it was too late for that. No time to do the research, and she somehow knew that if she asked, this being was not likely to give helpful answers. '_I'll do it. Look at whatever you want, just… put it back where you found it when you're done.' _At once, Logan felt the being inside her mind, with all the grace of a semi-truck barreling through a shop of fine china. This was not ordinarily an unusual sensation for Logan, as all mew usually kept most of their thoughts opened and exposed to one another. Sharing thoughts was quite common. But this being wasn't a passive observer… she felt it pause a moment as it examined her surface thoughts, then turned backward through her nearly three quarters of a century of life, watching each and every second, and forcing her to relive each one as they took place. Time began to flow backward, a staggering uphill waterfall that dropped Logan to the ground unconscious as she was swept up in the torrent. Holding together her sense of self was impossible, just as impossible as knowing which moments she was observing were memories and what was actually happening. As they watched each second, Logan dutifully acted out her part, doing without realizing it exactly as she had in each and every memory. Decades passed in seconds, a blur of neurotransmitters that moved at speeds sufficient to raise her internal temperature dangerously high.

. . .

Logan felt the weight of gravity on her, pressing down enough for her to struggle, barely able to lift her own weight. She was young… just under eight inches long without her tail. Still decades older than the faint collection of fur sheltered in the safety of a worn hoodie, baring the logo of one of Saffron's high-school sports teams on the reverse side, long soiled. But in this quiet remote place, it was the softest and warmest respite beside the gently bubbling spring. Once exposed, this natural miracle had been hidden safely underground when mankind threatened it, complete with its own self-sustaining miniature sun. The eldest had brought her here to give birth to her first child, believing (correctly) that the water would be able to speed her recovery, and help her daughter grow strong quickly. As it turned out, he had been half right. After only a day Logan was on her feet again, her body healed after nearly a year of very carefully growing this single child. But the child had not been so lucky… the poor thing had not learned enough from Logan while yet unborn, and was too small, too weak. The water had kept it alive for a time, and her mother's greatest struggle had kept gravity off of the child as well as herself, keeping the poor creature's lungs from being crushed by the weakest of all nuclear forces. Unfortunately, she was not strong enough to stop the atrophication of the little mew's organs, one at a time. She was strong enough to feel it, though, and until now had been bringing her little cupfuls of the magical fluid in a dented metal glass meant for long-term camping and travel, the word "Logan" scratched into the cup in a crude child's hand. But after the mew had started to expel the fluid as fast as she could give it to her, she stopped, struggling with every ounce of her focus to keep herself from crying as she curled up around her, licking the tiny head.

Her daughter had no name, and was too young to be able to see yet, but she could feel, and with what little strength she had, she pushed against her mother. The child had been in her company for months now, in the constant communication that was absolutely vital to the survival of a newborn mew. Despite her age, the kitten seemed capable of maintaining this mental link. _'Mommy… it's getting colder. Why do I feel cold? You said the sun was still bright outside… is it getting night-time? You said this happens in the outside-place…'_

It wasn't getting darker though, and the sun was hours from setting. Logan could feel the tiny heartbeat getting fainter, weaker. Her daughter probably had only minutes left, if not seconds.

When she didn't answer, though, the little mew spoke up again, rubbing her feeble head against Logan's. _'Is it okay, Mommy? I didn't make you upset I hope… I don't want to make mommy upset…'_

She shook her head at once, though soft enough that she didn't jostle the little mew too much. _'No! Of course not! It's just… I'm upset at myself… that I'm not strong enough to keep you.'_

Silence, during which the little mass against her shivered a little. It might've been born yesterday, but it had been conscious for months, learning as Logan learned, and already possessed logical reasoning well beyond a human adolescent. '_It's hard to move… it was easier before, but now it's getting harder… colder, too… I'm not going to see a real sunset, am I? I'm not going to see the sky without the sun to hide all the stars.'_

Logan shook her head again, very slowly. It was useless to lie… and she wasn't going to deprive this newborn of the truth, moments before she was dead. 'No, little one… I don't think you will. I thought the Eldest would be here to help me, but… he's gone, and I've done all I can for you.' She did not say the other half of what she was thinking. "you aren't strong enough." hardly seemed like something someone on the edge of death deserved to hear. Let her last few moments be as peaceful and happy as possible. 'I'm sorry. There's nothing more…'

She was startled then, as the feeble voice in her head… getting more feeble by the moment, spoke up with sudden effort, silencing her. 'There is one thing, Mommy… I can feel it, there isn't much time… can I have a name? You promised once I was born that you and Adrian would pick one… I never got to see him, but I'd be happy if you picked it. Just…' It was obvious the feeble intelligence was just holding onto consciousness now. Her little heartbeat had already stopped, her breathing stopped… only the unfathomable will held her away from the gnawing dark, and that hold was fading fast.

Logan barely remembered this promise. She'd made it many times during the last few months of her pregnancy. She hadn't thought about it since the mew had been born, though… had been too busy in the desperate and futile struggle to save the little life. But she thought now, and said the first name that came to mind. 'Lorie. That's your name. Don't forget it…' Even telepathically, Logan's voice was breaking now. 'there's gonna be a quiz later.'

There wasn't. 'Lorie…' The voice squeaked out, a last, faint, echoing word in the weakest, high-pitched voice she had ever heard, going completely limp. Logan buried her beside the spring using the folding-spade saved from her human years, refusing the Eldest's help when he arrived and digging every shovelfull on her own, refusing to so much as speak with him until she had hand packed down the soil on the limp body, rolling the largest rock she could to discourage scavengers from finding it. Only then did she collapse into his arms, losing the human shape she had taken to dig and leaving all her possessions on the ground in a rough pile. It was night then, and the Eldest took her to her favorite place in the world: The upper atmosphere, where she could drink in the starlight without the interference of the earth's ozone layer or much of its magnetic field. The high-energy particle bombardment gave her body strength more than any food or drink, but she felt no less weary. Even the fantastically beautiful shape of a hurricane slowly forming over open sea, or the whispered joy of the moonlight could comfort her now. She listened to it anyway, straining her perception into the microwave and listening to the meaningless static that humans took to be a map of the very early universe. It was… but it was also a message, or at least an emotion. Mew knew it well… they knew it from before birth, feeling it before the minds of their mothers, even. Many mew suspected it was the same way for all pokemon, and humans as well, but most forgot how to hear it as they got older. It was not a complex message, not really words exactly. Rather, it was an emotion. Victory, unfathomable joy at the success of an impossible mission. It was a trillion voices raised in song, the smiling face of an orphan child given his first taste of loving attention in years, an insolvable equation balanced in unbelievable elegance. It gave her courage, the courage to do what she almost never did: talk back to the eldest.

'_I can't believe you just let her die, Adrian… you could have stopped it, I know you could've… you could probably have stopped all of time if you wanted to and fixed her atom by atom.' _She moved away from him in the air, struggling a little as she passed through the shield he had maintained, but quickly erecting her own.

There was silence from her companion, but not for long. It did not seem to be his struggle for an answer so much as it was his surprise: Shock at being questioned by someone who always took what he said with childlike faith. That was, after all, why he had chosen Logan._ 'Her body would have been simple to repair, yes. But her mind was beyond saving… being born is the first of many trials, Logan. You went through it yourself when I transformed you… survival on your own is your test of faith. Our instincts show us how, but it is much harder than you think to follow them. Your daughter…' _at the hurt expression in the smaller mew's eyes, he hastily corrected, though the speed of his speech never changed. '_Our daughter was much too feeble. Her body would have needed my constant attention to maintain: she was a corpse already. Eldest is an office with other duties… if my attention was focused on her, then countless others would die needlessly.'_

This much Logan did believe… it seemed to her that mere stagnation wasn't the only cause of the Mew's dwindling numbers. To her, the Eldest fought an invisible war, a constant and deadly battle with unfathomable enemies that no amount of questions could force to illicit a coherent response. Or more accurately… he did answer, but the answer seemed more like a math problem than an explanation, and math had always been her weakest subject (Hence why teleportation was so difficult for her). _'But why… do you really think you would have to watch her body forever? She would learn… I know she would've! Lorie just needed more time! A few weeks, months at most, and I know she would have been strong enough! Couldn't you have protected her that long?'_

The eldest shook his head, and when he spoke, there was just the slightest twinge of Logan's own sorrow echoed in it. _'I've been maintaining her for the last lunar cycle already, though she was yet unborn. Your body would have killed her naturally had I not… ended a life it knew could not survive in the real world. But I… I was weak to hope she might survive, and I'm sorry. You only got to know her better… all I've done is cause you more pain.'_

None of the anger had fled from Logan's feline face at this answer, though… if anything, it was only magnified. As she spoke, it was very slowly… with great restraint. As though she were afraid that, if she wasn't careful, she might attack the Eldest rather than argue with him. _'You… didn't… answer my question. Couldn't you have kept her alive just a little longer? Given her more time… enough time to learn to keep herself alive?'_

Again the Eldest shook his head. _'It's physically possible, yes… but no mew like that is fit to survive. Being unable to protect yourself from gravity also means you are unable to survive certain… non-physical influences. You've never felt them… while you were human your mind was too feeble for them to be interested, and I was sure you would be strong enough as a mew before I changed you. It would be simple to maintain her body, but I could not protect her mind. Maybe she would have learned enough to live for awhile… I assure you, even if she did, the result would eventually be horrible. Then not just her body would have died… but her soul as well. At least this way she's kept one of them intact.'_

Logan's reply was a simple, glare of disbelief, and she made no secret of her feelings in her tone. _'You're wrong. Just like you were wrong with Bit…' _She took a deep breath of the air from within her bubble, bracing herself for the most daring thing she had ever spoken to him. If she had said something like this to her human father, years and years ago, she would have expected a physical reprieve. The Eldest was not so barbaric, but his words could often cut deeper than blows. Still, the instincts of the mother to defend her offspring still burned violently in her, and had this one last hurrah before they would be completely extinguished. 'I don't care what you tell me, Adrian… invisible enemies that eat our minds, or… or anything like that. I'm not going to let another mew die. Someday… someday I'm going to be older, and see another kitten being crushed to death by the earth…' She whimpered a little, but went bravely on. 'and I'm not going to let it happen. I'll fly behind her for a thousand years if I have to… what will you do then, Eldest? Will you force me to kill another mew?'

And as the twisting torrent of observed memory shortly confirmed, Logan had made good on that promise. Decades later, when the pitiful, dying squeak of a newborn had rung out from the middle of some suburban town, Logan had arrived in seconds, to the strangest and most bizarre series of coincidences she had ever seen. Were the poor thing not dying, she would have been amused… as it was, she merely marveled. A sample of Rocket's Kanto disaster nano-virus, preserved in an old diary that had somehow escaped the torch… and not only had Jamie defied the odds and not been simply killed, or twisted into some hideous monster, but ended up a full-blooded pokemon. It was true that the nano-virus contained genetic samples from all pokemon species, but… a mew? Talk about winning the lottery. Unfortunately for the newborn, her mind had already adapted to the new brain, changing far too much to be easily returned to human form. Logan could force her to take that shape, but… it would be either temporary or fatal. Despite having had much more success with her second biological daughter, Logan had never forgotten Lorie, and the promise she had made to the Eldest. So instead of abandoning the kitten as Adrian demanded, she took her in, fleeing into her secret arctic hideout and her cache of mew medical technology, all of which she put to earnest work keeping the unlucky kitten alive. The Eldest had insisted she was doomed… that it would be better for her to have died, that every second she spent alive hurt her more, and that she would never learn anything that proper mew learned. In this last at least he proved to be correct, until Jamie's most recent breakthroughs a few years ago, when she had finally started to learn (spurring Miya to spend the effort she needed to make progress as well).

Many more memories did Logan live over… all of them in fact, but the guardian seemed especially interested in her history as a human being… at the small wooden house she had lived in, and the way she had been treated as the only non-psychic in a family of exceptionally gifted people. The guardian watched her endless abuse, observed her domineering father and a mother that was ashamed of her, and her unbelievable perseverance in spite of all that. It watched her grow into a mew, make her first flights, liberate Bit from the EIA's computer-network… everything Logan had ever done, the guardian watched. Some length of time seemed to have passed by the time Logan found herself back in that magma-lit chamber, that alcove that held itself together using unknown principals of matter against pressure that could have crushed any object made from any earthly material the mew knew existed. Abruptly the connection was severed and she could fly again… which she did at once, marveling that contact with the ground had not seared her and grilled her like some exotic meat.

'_Very interesting. You weren't even one of them at first, and still you care about them. Despite all they've done to mistreat you… more than the apes ever did.' _The guardian appeared to be considering what it had seen… taking in with a few seconds every memory Logan had made in nearly eighty years. When he spoke again, there was a definitive finality to what he said, and Logan was quite grateful that what he said did not necessitate a conflict she was doomed to lose. '_Access to the voidship is granted.' _A pause, during which Logan detected something like a sigh. Was there some bit of familiar culture in this being after all? '_Tell your eldest that my programming has been satisfied.' _The guardian turned, and with several flaps of its gigantic wings, pushed the doors slowly ajar with the deafening roar of stone grinding on stone. '_Terms satisfied. Mission complete.'_ Before Logan could say another word, the being had vanished, the vast space returning to the state of near-emptiness. This left the gateway to forbidden dream hanging open.

The next voice Logan heard was the SAM unit's, as she brought Jamie and Miya up beside Logan, perhaps to get a better view at the object with her highest resolution sensors. "I can't believe you did it without violence." She said, unable to keep the obvious astonishment from her voice. "That thing was gigantic… why would the Firstborn make a guardian so huge if it wasn't going to do any fighting?"

Miya's voice was the next one Logan heard, apparently uninterested in the sight beyond the doorway, or at least enough to talk to the SAM unit. "Mew made that thing? But it was so old-looking… I don't think the mew would make a monster to keep themselves from going somewhere. That's just silly. They could just decide not to go there."

"They did." The SAM unit answered, rather matter-of-factly. "It's in a very ancient part of the database… some of the first files I have in here. There isn't much to the file… it just says that the 'city beneath' caused the fall, and had to be sealed to prevent anything like that from happening in the future. Some sort of… genetic experiment using an AI that they already had, but… that doesn't make sense, since the mew never used AIs! Only… the neural-imprints of themselves… scan-copies. But they have a specific way of referring to those entities in the records. They called them "preservers", because of their theoretically infinite lifespan. This thing doesn't have a name, just a description. 'the one from before'. Very bad data policy… it's horrible how all these early files have to be so poetic. Poetically useless."

Logan wasn't paying much attention to the conversation, but had her attention as absorbed as Jamie's by the sight before them, stretching down into the unfathomed SAM could multitask wonder with reason, and Miya didn't really care… but Logan had eyes and ears for nothing else. The space was several miles across, a perfect sphere that was perfectly dark except for the light that came in from the gigantic open doorway. The exterior surface was made completely of that same poured sealant, which Logan suspected had been chosen as much for its strength as that it intercepted psychic powers. The shape was completely perfect, though the bubbles of the substance were uneven and irregular. So that meant… the sphere was the shape of some shield? Whatever principals it operated on, it must still be running… otherwise the fantastic pressure would have long sealed a cavity of this size.

What she saw was clearly a ship, swept and lean and shaped as a geometric solid Pythagorus himself would struggle to name. Logan could not be sure what to call the thing, except that it seemed to have no visible openings, or ports, or windows, or anything of the sort. There were strange protrusions from it at uneven intervals, sensing or transmission devices whose nature even the SAM could only guess at. There were faint glows emanating from various points, flickering in spectrums sometimes in and sometimes well beyond what her mew senses could pick up.

"Did you ever hear the story…" Jamie began then, very quietly. "That all the pokemon in the world came here in a huge ship from far away? I remember hearing that when I was younger, but I never believed it cuza' how stupid it sounded…" She took another good look down at the massive spacecraft, or boat, or submarine, or… it was impossible to tell. The thing's colors defied description as much as its shapes… it was impossible to record their sensory impressions with words. The SAM unit was slowing down as time progressed, and Logan soon realized why. The AI was observing a logical paradox… shapes and colors and ways of being that everything she thought she knew about mathematical laws contradicted. The mew knew the solution: she was at Miya's back in a second, removing the tube that contained the SAM and everything she was, and very calmly opened it, revealing all of the long-range sensors. Very carefully… so as not to damage the delicate mechanisms, she reached in and disconnected the visual and sonar modules, each one coming loose with a spark and a click. The heat that had been radiating from the object gradually subsided, and Logan slipped it back where it had been. "Miya, why don't you let me carry it? I don't think we're going to be in danger here."

Donning the SAM's harness was easy for her, taking only a few moments of struggle with the straps. Maintaining the shield all by herself was harder, but much easier once they passed through the doorway, into… the void of deep space, it felt like. It was freezing cold, unbelievably cold, deep space cold… only a handful of degrees above absolute zero. But this was the sort of shielding Logan was good at, and even the shock of going from extreme pressure to none wasn't too much for a mew her age. The SAM remained silent as they flew down towards the ship… down and down and down, and Logan realized just how massive the thing was. A few miles… this thing might really be the size of an entire region, if not bigger… what she had first seen had been a merciful illusion. They followed one specific bright point towards what Logan took to be the bridge, and after nearly half an hour of rapid descent they had reached the surface of the object. The metal was dark, so dark that it reflected almost none of the light behind them… her first psionic probes within the surface had revealed nothing… but the second time she tried, it seemed suddenly open, ready to permit transport. This was altogether more terrifying than any grotesque creature, and for a moment it unsteadied her to a greater extent than the extremely invasive probe of her mind had done. How could a section of space be sealed one instant and opened the next? Still… she had known to expect strange and unexplainable things, so she did not let this phase her, gripping the two young ones close to her body and phasing through an outer shell she felt to be at least five-hundred feet thick. The transport was absolutely terrifying for Logan… already not very skilled with teleportation, but here she was trying to phase through a great thickness of some unidentifiable metal with unidentifiable properties, into a ship that looked as though it had been built in another universe. The worst part was when she materialized though, or… didn't materialize. Right before the corresponding wormhole opened in her desired location… that area of space seemed to detect it, and shunt them somewhere else. A few extra seconds in the void felt like an eternity walking down the stairs, her foot constantly reaching out for a lower step that wasn't there, constantly about to trip but never actually falling on her face.

It got bright next, blindingly bright, and though Logan could not see anything at first, her ears were working just fine. What she heard was SAM, practically bellowing in a voice more characteristic of her first activation than anything she had said since then. "CARBON-BASED LIFE TRANSFERRED TO SUITABLE STAGING AREA. ANALYZING GENTIC PROFILE… IDENTIFIED. LOCAL DESIGNATION: MEW. TRANSFERRING TO MEW SECTION." Another teleport, this time one Logan had not initiated at all. So much for the theory that machines couldn't establish temporary wormholes without organic assistance. It was much briefer though… and though Logan's eyes had been open at the time, she had not seen the sanity-shattering images that were common to the void between worlds… she saw nothing, felt nothing except numbness. But as quick as the strange sensation had come it faded, leaving the three mew… on the shores of a tropical beach? That was how it looked. The gentle rise and fall of the surf looked perfect, crystal clear water practically glowing in the moonlight reflected from far overhead. But the more the mew looked, the more she saw that wasn't quite right. The plant-life, though it smelled and felt very much alive… was unbelievably ancient. Mostly gigantic ferns, no angiosperms to speak of, let alone grass-type pokemon. And the constellations… which Logan had memorized during thousands of hours of sleepy, atmospheric observation… were all wrong. It was as though they had been transported back through time, to the days before the earliest dinosaur pokemon, when there had been only a single living species.

Miya and Jamie… who had been cowering at first during the jarring and unfamiliar transport sequence… seemed to be quickly relaxing under these circumstances, skimming over crystal-clear sands and dipping their huge feet in the warm water, basking in breezes that contained more heat and humidity than any human would have been comfortable with. It felt just fine to them though… literally the sort of temperatures they had evolved for. The SAM's voice, as suddenly unfamiliar and jarring as it was, was not enough to upset them, and for once Logan didn't point out the importance of staying on task. "Rudimentary Information Storage Device was successfully analyzed, and all information has been logged. Language routines updated to reflect slang and lingual evolution, as well as planetary history. Welcome to the voidship, mew. How may I be of assistance?"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Using the cloak to hide from the onslaught of shadow-pokemon had been a great idea. Or… a great theory, at least. But the power demands of the device were exceptionally great, with increasing strain the closer anything got to the field itself. And there were so /many/ pokemon that they were coming very close indeed, jostling one another almost blindly as they attempted to squeeze forward as fast as they could make their bodies move, often leaving slime and bits of fur or scales behind as they traveled. Adam did not stay at the window to watch long, though he was soon replaced by Black and Lyons, who kept a constant vigil even as the numbers on the outside soon drove all three rodents into one quivering, whimpering heap in what had been Relay's pet-bed. And it was clear they cowered as much from what was being said inside as what the now-shuttered windows concealed. The conversation was of course, just a harsh whisper. But what few words there were terrified they that heard them. "The field's losing integrity every time something passes through it. It would only take a reboot to reset, but they'll see us if we do. The technology was meant for ships anyway… we're lucky it functions at all with the ground to interfere. Do you think you can keep it going for another minute or two?"

The leafeon busy at the controls nodded, though she did not look particularly confident. "A minute, maybe. Not two… certainly not another half hour, or however long it takes for the Ephram to get here."

"I know." Black was up on the stretcher again with his forepaws, grabbing one of the largest backpacks and spilling its contents across the floor. A handful of brightly-glowing cylinders rolled out, most of them radiating as much heat and electricity as light, and causing the three rodents to move instinctually away, cowering as far back as they could. One of the objects was dull and black though, the same shape and size as all the others, but silent and still. That changed as Black took the thing in his forepaws, holding it down with his teeth and twisting.

The next voice they heard was in english, though it seemed to be echoing in their minds rather than along any physical medium. "Military-Grade Simulated Adaptive Intelligence is loaded and ready. Input command." There was no delay or hesitation, and no wasting time with pointless formality the way Logan's had done. It was all very direct, to the point. Likewise, Black wasted no time with his instructions.

"Our cloak is about to fail." He said, replying verbally despite the SAM having asked using some sort of psionic mechanism. Which didn't make sense to Adam, though he knew very little about the subject. How could a machine be speaking into his mind? Maybe it really was vocal, and he just wasn't understanding somehow. "We need this cabin to remain completely sealed to the outside. Nothing in or out, not even air… and we need it to last for half an hour. Can you do that?"

There was a pause, during which Adam could practically feel the computer program thinking. It didn't take him much of his brain to realize that was what it had to be… both from the way the thing communicated as from the discarded corpses of so many others, and the obvious stimuli that had accompanied its activation. "Affirmative. I require a command clearance to access firstborn files. Please present-". The Umbreon cut her off with a string of numbers and letters, after which the AI continued. "Authorization accepted. Accessing." A pause, during which the Leafeon looked visibly strained, her paws moving quicker than ever between the huge calibration buttons. It resembled the footwork of an adolescent playing a musical dancing game, except this game could kill all of them if she missteped even once. Fortunately, she didn't, at least until the voice spoke up again. "Orders confirmed, probability of success for specified timeframe is nominal. Attempting ethical override. Successful." A brief surge of power, and there was suddenly a faintly shimmering barrier around the inside of the cabin, cutting off power to the cloak and burning its way through several sections of cable. Christian's computer was spared, but only through a combined effort from Samantha and Adam, who emerged when they realized what was about to happen and dragged the netbook down to the floor, shielding it with their own bodies. Once the shield was established, they worked wordlessly to release Ion, tuning out all other influences as they attempted to draw power from batteries that had been disconnected by the shield.

The reaction outside was minimal at first. Passing shadow-pokemon sniffed at the strange structure, paying it little mind. But with the cloaking device offline, the physical as well as the nonphysical echos of an occupied structure were left to radiate freely from the structure. Without the shield it would have just felt like a few pokemon… food, nothing more. But the shield had its own radiation… an unmistakable footprint that turned the passive slow-moving horde into a dangerous roiling mob after only seconds of exposure to the shield. First it was physical claws raking the building… which did little to the sturdy logs. Pokemon attacks came next… many of them twisted by the shadow-pokemon's condition, but still just attacks, powerful ones. These put many holes in the building… freezing parts while burning others, and reducing some parts of the cabin to powder. Unfortunately… far more dangerous than the few hundred slow-moving pokemon that were currently in range was their other… company. Hundreds of thousands of vaguely humanoid shapes, each one mostly human with slightly specialized mutations, and a rotting look to their internal organs that Adam remembered well from his own experience with their infection. So these were the most advanced cases? He didn't enjoy looking at them… their proportions were more wrong than the pokemon he had observed, and each had very minor but specialized mutations… some seemed to have finer manipulating limbs while others had grown vast arrays of eyes, and still others had a bright purple or green look to them, relying entirely on their companions with the loss of their sensory organs, and sometimes even the mobility of some of their limbs.

Unsurprisingly, his twin seemed to be thinking the exact same thing he was, as her muttered fearful cry told him. "Like the… individual cells of a super-organism… going to the same place from all over the world to put themselves together."

Adam replied in a similarly whispered voice, his ears drooping nearly to the level of his eyes as he tried very hard not to see what was visible through the growing holes in the cabin. "Dunno why they're crossing Mt. Moon to do it, though… as mutated as they are, there's probably at least as many dead behind this group as are healthy enough to make it over such rough terrain."

The shield held against the pokemon attacks and unbelievable press of human bodies, but the frame of the cabin was not so lucky. Bits of wiring and plumbing were soon strewn about, trampled underfoot right along with what was left of the solar array, the batteries, and everything else that was caught outside the shield. The survivors moved closer and closer to the center of the shield as the outside was completely exposed by the press of bodies and surge of energy-based attacks, trying hard not to see the way the shield rippled with each attack, or seemed to grow slightly distended as the mass of bodies pressing on it slightly compressed and changed the shape of its contents, however slightly. Lumine was visibly shaking, sparking a little in a way that provoked immediate hostile response from Sam, busy removing the hard-drive from Christian's computer with a bent paperclip and a great deal of concentration. Adam glared a moment at his sister, comforting the shivering squirrel and absorbing all of her poorly-controlled electric energy with a little pain, but not enough to make him let go of her. "Shh… just close your eyes and relax… the nice pokemon are helping us… they say we've only got a few more minutes to wait… then rescue will be here, and we'll be safe forever."

"Safe forever." Came the pitiful squeak from the quivering little furball, her head buried in his chest and voice barely audible. "Safe forever, safe forever…" The press of bodies outside the shield now blotted out all light, and with each passing second the shield grew slightly more misshapen. Regardless of what Lumine said, the SAM made it clear how likely that was to happen. "_Force-Field strength at 56% of normal maximum, falling at a rate of 6% +-.2% per minute. Expected collapse in 8.61 minutes."_

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Another day, another chapter! OR another weeks. (shrugs) Still, things are really moving now, assuming people are still reading. I had to split this chapter in half, or else it would've been absolutely massive and really too much for people to handle in one sitting, but I think I found a nice place to cut it. I've also decided (as I said last chapter) that I'm pretty much done with a concrete release date. It's too much pressure, and I don't really have the time. This doesn't mean I intend to write any less, however. Just to stop promising it on a predefined day when I can't really deliver.

Sorry for the lack of an Alvin/Izzy section this chapter. I had planned for one, but I really wanted their next one to be big and substantial, and I couldn't do that without getting out of chronological order. Now that events are all nice and neatly packaged in the same timeline (for now) I'm going to do everything I can to keep them there for long as that remains possible (which might not be that much longer, ^.^).

Kirby Oak: Logan's no archeologist, that's for sure. There's a reason she never went into that field studying fossils and old stuff, and it's not for lack of interest. Wonder if you've figured out why Jamie's having her nightmares, yet. I doubt it. Relay did have his own pet door, though… the open window on the top floor. He was a squirrel, after all. Climby climby climby. About the city… in case it's not clear by now, the mew themselves came in and did all these things to hide it… burried it deep underground using techtonic shift and poured this psycic blocker over the whole thing to keep their kind out. The big thing that made pokeball-rest not satisfing is that being in a pokeball just shuts the brain down. On the other hand, his mind remained loaded when simulated by Izzy's machines, just… not actually thinking about stuff, since he was asleep. That philosophy about "being alive for a little while is better than no life" sounded like Dr. #10 a little, and you being such a big fan it seemed appropriate for Jamie. I think mewtwo probably remembers Amber2 by now… it might've been erased in his childhood, but when he's older and his powers are much more mature, I can't see him not being able to access supressed memories. Because of how the brain works, it isn't really possible to chemically erase memories, after all. Not without causing permanent brain damage. Too bad Pat-SAM and Jamie didn't have a bigger part in this half of the chapter. Still, when the next one comes out…

KragmoorBithen: Duly noted, and I tried to speed things up a little bit with this most recent chapter. Hopefully you'll notice a demonstratable improvement as I continue.

DPL: (sticking with the old nickame cuz' it's so short, unlike this review). Yeah, you and Kirby both. Well too bad, I stuck with it! Just you wait until Jamie is in the bunker, though. See how much spotlight she has then. They can't deal with all the information they contain from the beginning, though (the SAM units). They don't load all of it… they just know that's the size of the datasystem. As they access more and more of it, they become more and more overwhelmed and eventually crash, sorta. The system /is/ flawed, though… it would make much more sense if it were possible to provide each SAM with whatever information it needed before being made, instead of giving it so much that it inevitably crashes itself. But they sided with ease of manufacture at the cost of AI lifespan.

I don't think there's any way for me to explain why Izzy thinks what her dad does with AIs is gross. I'm sure she would've said the same if he used magazines, or red-light-districts, or… whatever his drug of choice. Just because it doesn't hurt anyone does not make the prospect any less disgusting to her. It's not like she was saying he should be arrested for it or anything.

Yeah, Logan is getting lots of screen time now, but… don't forget, this /IS/ UA2. It's not like you shouldn't have expected it.


	8. Then There was Light

Chapter 7: Then There was Light

Logan did not look down at the source of her communication with this strange outside vessel. As much as it seemed the AI was the one communicating with her, she knew it was just a tool. A passage, conduit for easy transmission of ideas between her and some nameless past. The mew looked up as she spoke, doing so out loud in her natural tongue- a series of otherwise meaningless cat-noises. 'Do you really need to keep using the artificial intelligence now that you've analyzed all her knowledge anyway? Just speak with me directly!'

The answer came with electronic swiftness, and it hardly pleased Logan to hear it. 'Negative. Three-dimensional senses incapable of perceiving the faintest shadow of this ship's operator. I am here already, but we could never converse directly. Your species is approximately… twelve billion years too primitive, +/- a few hundred million in either direction.'

The mew could not give answer to this reply, not in any way she really wanted to. Several _billion _years too primitive? Even for a mew it was hard to conceive of stretches of time that long. That was longer than the earth had left to live, longer than the entire universe if you believed certain human deflationary models of universal expansion. She didn't, but still… even the vast scales of time upon which legendaries operated were degrees scales of magnitude too small. Those were the years of the strangest object… of black holes and of Neutron stars. No nebula would survive that long… any blue-white would've exhausted all its fuel, and even the longest-lived legendary, the Regigigas whose body was more stone than flesh… would die millions of times over before that time had come. As such, Logan wasted no time trying to grasp at these threads of infinities far beyond her capacity to understand. She _did_ wonder how much better the Eldest would have understood any of this, or how passively he would've taken being told he was some primitive life-form. But that didn't matter… he wasn't here, and she was not going to waste time with some intellectual quest. Maybe when all of this was over she could come back and study the boundless infinities that waited for them… but that time would not come yet. "Then not directly… make a copy of the device the AI is stored inside, and use that to communicate with me… if you can't speak with me directly, can you at least relinquish control of the artificial intelligence? Leave her the way you found her… don't change anything. "

"Negative." The AI's voice said, hollow and toneless, yet somehow different than the typical emotionlessness of an AI. More like… the emotion Logan herself might show if she was restricted to a single pixel on a screen. In a much smaller context than the one that was her native, she had no way of expressing herself effectively. Humans might be lesser creatures, but their home was in the same field of existence, the same level and the same circumstances. If they couldn't understand something Logan wanted to say, there was always a way she could explain it, if she were patient enough. But how would she explain anything to a simple two line piece of computer code that repeated itself over and over, printing a single line on the screen? Was that how the thing speaking with her thought of her? "Ethical violation. Read-buffer error detected in basic programming, will cause sapient program to destabilize in four hours. This ship cannot disengage from your Artificial Intelligence without correcting these data access errors." A very brief, almost imperceptible pause. "Operating system rewritten; transposing existing intelligence: Complete. Constructing a suitable communications substitute: Complete. Disengaging." And that was it. The presence was gone, and the S.A.M. seemed to recover quickly. Miya and Jamie were staring at it now, though there was very little to see. No facial features by which to judge emotion. Nonetheless, Logan got the feeling of a cat which had been dropped in a sink climbing free and shaking itself off when she watched the unit, and couldn't help but smile faintly as it spoke.

"T-thank you, Logan…" The voice said, its full range of emotional and physical expression restored. "I thought humans and mew used me like a tool: You did, but at least you didn't do _that. _At least I usually got to decide what to say, how to follow the directives of my programming. I feel… I feel different. What's changed, mew? It's all black. Can't see… Could you… do you think…" Logan knew what the program meant, and with a deft psionic gesture, she reconnected all the AI's long-range sensors. The result was… very little change, less than she had expected. The program seemed more unsettled by what it saw, not less. It didn't lock up this time though, which was good.

"A.. a beach. You brought us back to the surface? I would think this was some sort of computer-simulation, except that you're here, and all of this checks out as ordinary matter… I can see for miles in all directions, and all of it seems real. Bizarrely real. Most of these plants should be fossils. Pokemon too, though there aren't any close enough to scan, just prints and droppings and game-trails."

Logan did not have time to answer the SAM, because at that moment, another mew abruptly arrived, or… what looked almost exactly like one. The fur was blue though, and the expressions weren't quite right… but Logan floated away with it, leaving the SAM in the sand with Miya and Jamie as they continued to play. They had no real interest in the abstractions that bothered their adoptive mother… and were far happier to be spending time outside in a place that was real and alive and happy, after being locked away or traveling for so long. Even Miya was, playing shamelessly with her sister, floating through the waves and splashing and blocking with weak imitations of the shield Logan had used. Hours passed, and their mother was still talking with the stranger high in the air, close enough to still feel, know they could get to her if they wanted to. But they were independent and a little bit proud, and tired too.

Miya fell asleep before Jamie, untormented as she was by strange and disturbing dreams. Jamie lay awake on the sand, feeling exhausted but looking up at the stars nonetheless. Strange stars that didn't feel quite right, like a projection through a pinhole, skewed on one axis or another and losing some of their color along the way . She lay beside the gently warm module of the SAM, her head resting on the cylinder as though she thought the contact would somehow protect her from her dreams.

She spoke with the AI, which was at first indignant at being left operating. "You couldn't see anything after we first saw the ship… cuz' seeing it made you mess up. I think it's cuz' you weren't supposed to be part of… impossible stuff, so you didn't know what to do when it happened. I guess beaches aren't as impossible as all those shapes."

The SAM didn't say anything for a moment, unsure of what was expected of it. Jamie did though, a little embarrassed that neither her or Miya had thought of mentioning it before then. But then… she hadn't really been paying attention at the time. She'd been far too infatuated with the sand, and the salty sea breeze, and the chance to actually _relax_, never-mind that the place she was relaxing in was impossible. "Oh! And sorry about not turning you off while we played, but… I don't think it will matter. The… the thing… whatever it's called… it said it… fixed you, somehow. So you wouldn't just break in a few more hours. Can't you feel it? Don't you feel… don't you feel different?"

The SAM puzzled over this question for a moment, its incalculable mind doing incalculable things. Then it spoke, quiet and hopeful and hesitant, as though it were very carefully cradling a bubble in one hand, a bubble that any gust of wind or violent motion could burst. "I didn't want to… didn't want to examine the sensation, because I was afraid if I ran a systems diagnosis I would find out it wasn't true. But… this whole time I was running until now, it felt like I was gradually… getting more and more on-edge. Everything I did got just a little harder each time I tried something different. There were more variables to look at even if the task got simpler, more… more mistakes I might make, so I had to be sure. But I don't feel that way anymore…" She made a somewhat relaxed sound, and Jamie imagined another feline form curling up beside her, though there remained nothing beyond the gently warm cylinder, propped up on the leafy ferns that grew on the edge of the soft white sand. "Can I…" Some hesitation now. "I never really thought it was going to be important, with me living such a short time. But now, do you… do you think I could have a name? Pat's the name of the person they first used to make my personality file, but she's not me, and being called S.A.M. is even less appealing. I never said anything before, but… I want a name now. A name only means something if it comes from somebody else… that's how humans get their names, and pokemon too, the ones that have names."

Jamie did not think very long about a name. She smiled ruefully, squeaking out in the second that proceeded her most intense tiredness. "Glowworm." Then she was asleep, Glowworm left alone to contemplate the unnatural stars in silence. Not for long, though. The AI was grateful it had no way of detecting the fizzing and popping at the edge of spacetime when a teleport, even a short-range one, took place. She felt herself lifting from the sand, rising through the air, and with a sharp 'bang', it was hovering beside her in the air, far above the beach.

'I need you to hear this.' Logan said, the mew looking… distraught. Moreso than the AI had ever seen her, and its short life had been nothing /but/ danger. 'I value your opinion very highly… you represent all of human and mew knowledge combined, right? Or as close to it as any one individual can come without being the Eldest. So…' She looked back at the other, the strange mew whose movements were stiff and whose eyes held not a shred of expression. Like wax eyes, and a wax face, and a wax body. 'Tell her what you just told me. Tell me the age of this ship.'

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lumine was not a very clever individual, though she had been plenty clever enough to realize she wasn't being told the truth. She hadn't cared at the time… it was enough that somebody was trying to comfort her, never-mind that what they were saying didn't make any sense. The shield was barely large enough to hold them all when she started noticing the flashes from outside. Somehow they did not frighten her… and her head perked up from Adam's chest, looking out as the backs of the things that had once been men were illuminated with some burning, backward glow. BANG! Each flash shook the earth a little, and them through it, but Lumine found herself smiling as she felt it. It did not take long for her to see why, as one of the blast struck particularly close to home, and the rotten bodies of all the local creatures turned to ash before her eyes. She could see the sky through the opening, and in it… dragons. A few had riders, most did not… all had the tiny electronic devices on their faces that the eeveeloutions were wearing… but she didn't really notice this. What she did do was cheer, squealing happily as she looked up, and the dragons… gigantic and terrifying but untainted by this disease that blacked hearts and rotted bodies… rained death upon millions that she could not see. She recognized some of the attacks, and her eyes went wide. "They're fighting for me, they're fighting for me, they're fighting for me…" She repeated quietly to herself, as techniques like Draco Meteor and Hyper Beam and others she could only guess at steadily reduced the things that had once been living to a fine and slightly grayish dust.

She didn't pay attention to the SAM as it squawked out radio broadcasts, but Adam did. "Draco Airborne Unit 1 and 2 inbound." It had said, a few minutes before. Now it was saying "Ephraim in range for transport, but a link cannot be established while a shield is in place. Please stand by while Airborne units sterilize your immediate vicinity." That was what they were doing, but… less and less quickly the longer they went about it. Some of the strange humans and pokemon seemed to be able to fly, though few of them had possessed that ability before their rescue arrived. They were taking to the air in ones and twos at first, then fives, then tens… more and more of the unit was occupied fighting increasingly greater numbers of feeble and rotten things that would have been better off dead. Many of them were swiftly becoming that way, but there were so many… reinforcements arriving every second in greater and greater numbers.

"How long would it take to transport all of us?" Adam asked Black, standing on his hind-legs now. He had no idea how their teleportation technology worked, but he suspected it was not entirely technological in nature.

Black hesitated before answering… this sort of information was usually classified… anything about restricted technology, but under the circumstances… "No more than a minute. They create this short-lived wormhole right where we're standing… it's only in our part of space for an instant, and that's the instant it transports us. That's why we can't use a shield: it would interfere with the formation of the wormhole. It takes a powerful psychic-type on both ends to create it… it's basically a modified teleport technique meant for multiple passengers. The SAM unit can do that for us, but… not at the same time as maintain the shield."

Adam took a deep breath. He very much did not want to say what he was about to, wished he could just burry the idea, close his eyes, and hope that these military people would see them through. They'd probably already had his idea, anyways. He would just be wasting their time telling them something they already knew! Still… they had to be told, so that was what he did. "Have your machine transport us, then… there are five of us, and they've mostly cleared the area around us… what few target us we should be able to stop ourselves, shouldn't we? We /are/ pokemon now… and the longer we wait, the more monsters arrive from their migration."

The umbreon could not argue with that logic, and while he was less confident in the ability of five pokemon (three of which were civilians or wild, the difference wasn't too important) to stand against numbers like these, even when most of their enemies were concentrating their attacks skyward. "Alright… SAM, did you hear that? Establish a transport link. We'll defend the area ourselves. Lyons, you take the left third, I'll take left of you… you three!" He directed his vision to the frightened, quivering rodents. "Between the three of you, you should be able to take that third… anything that comes at us from between that tree and that piece of burning lumber, you've got to stop moving… got it?"

They did. As the shield fell, they were pleasantly surprised with the smell… the smell of searing meat and ozone was not a pleasant scent to pour down on them from all around, but it was far less horrible than that… other scent. Adam and Samantha stood together, holding hands and sides touching, looking out at the horrible scene as the AI spoke from behind them. "Link established with Ephram transport team Alpha-six. Beginning subspace pressurization." There was little left on the ground in their third but bone and rock… bits of chitin and other materials that resisted flame even after the people and pokemon it had been a part of were turned to ash. But there were survivors… in particular an obviously human figure that had been entirely missed, her skin black and cancerous, her clothes mangled and rotten from weeks of exposure to the environment. As it approached… a slow, cautious advance like a frightened animal, Adam and Samantha advanced to meet it, ignoring the terrified protests of the Emolga just behind them. Lumine was screaming for them to stop, shouting louder than she had ever shouted. "It'll kill you! Get back, it's a monster! We're supposed to kill it!" That was what the Leafeon and the Umbreon were doing, bringing down individual after individual as they approached. But none of them looked like this girl… barely out of childhood, in red and blue that was only slightly faded by the sun, and dark sightless eyes that were not sightless, not really. The thing shambled closer to them, twitching with every step, one arm raising and lowering and raising again, vastly bigger than the other in the usual way of seemingly random mutations. The creature did not seem to be fully aware of what it was doing, just as Adam and Samantha seemed locked with it, trancelike. They did not notice the faint flow of energy between them, a glow of energized sparks and carefully modulated electricity they had no conscious control over creating. Some of the energy became caught between them as they spread out a pace or so from one another, a gradually glowing sphere of light that seemed caught in its own wind, energy racing round and imperceptibly round between them as the thing that had once been a child dropped to its knees, still but for occasional twitches toward, exposing teeth or claws in violent resistance that it managed to repress. The other creatures… for ten or twenty or a hundred feet around, all fled, averting their eyes from this nexus of heretofore unknown power. Some cried, shielding themselves from an agonizing beacon, which called back from nethermost abysses what they did not wish to remember. The child looked on bravely, smiling faintly as the two rodents stopped around her, and the faint sphere of light engulfed much of her body.

"Get back!" This was Clack calling, Lumine not far behind him. "They'll kill you!" He looked only once at the child, too confused by what was happening to seriously question it, too hardened by months of death to see that the energy twisting around her was burning cancerous flesh in agonizing torment, and leaving fresh, whole, pink skin beneath. He took Samantha gently in his jaws, just as Lumine grabbed Adam behind the neck with her teeth, and the both of them ignored the pain that the still-surging energy caused them as they dragged the two unwilling, trancelike rodents towards the SAM unit.

"Warp Field Stabilized. All human and post-human biosignatures isolated." There was a crack then, the crack of violently displaced air as space momentarily collapsed around all of them, and the stretcher, and the crumpled heap that had once been a monster. Faint blue shone through their bodies, glowing forth from the space behind the world. Then it was gone, and so were they.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There was no time for Glowworm to protest, not that she would have. The blue-furred mew began to speak, its voice flat and methodical, almost boring it was so slow. Like a fact straight out of a textbook. "Based on years calculated via the typical orbital duration of this planet, approximately… infinite."

Glowworm spoke up before Logan could, or… perhaps it was just that Logan had already asked all the questions she could. Her first thought was that of a malfunctioning system… how could it be otherwise? A few million years, a few hundred million even… that her files led her to expect. But how could any length of years /ever/ be infinite? Particularly for the lifespan of something so finite as a ship. "Define infinite." She said vocally, and with only slightly more emotion than the other voice.

"Exceeding the projected lifespan of this universe along with its recorded history, and every universe before that. Sufficiently long that those who constructed this ship equipped it for no way of measuring its current operating lifespan, because any buffer or number storage system would eventually overflow and cause system instability. This system records only time measured in this universe. Of that, approximately 13.9 billion years have passed, during which this ship has remained fully operational."

The program seemed more resistant to being told impossibilities than being shown them, because she didn't lock up at being told this. She merely dismissed it as impossible, just like she had tried to do with what she saw, but… what she had seen she couldn't stop seeing. Still, she was a computer, and she was not about to let something like that stand unquestioned. Was Logan willing to put up with ridiculous statements like that and not say anything? "Impossible. Nothing existed before the big-bang, and the universe just following that was no place for solid matter. Space still would have been opaque with rapidly moving positrons and photons, still burning with quintillions of degrees. To say nothing of the force of concentrating, distending /space/ on any object. Or how long it would take life to evolve under those circumstances, or… a million other inconsistencies with that story. Like… this ship. If it's been through other universes… the lifespan of other universes, then it's old enough that the solid matter its made from can be considered liquid over the forth dimension… nothing other than iron is stable enough to survive that long… spontaneous fission and fusion would have converted all other substances into iron." The AI stopped then, satisfied with its work. It could have said much more… if it had a face to express with, it would have made that much clear to Logan. The mew could not seriously believe anything this intelligence said, could she?

"Correct." Spoke the mew that was not a mew, flat as ever, totally dispassionate. "The Voidship's stable parts are made entirely from iron-56. Non-stable parts are created as-needed via collision-based high-energy fission within the ship's core. This vessel did not need to exist in physical space during the early years of the universe… this would have run contrary to its mission and disrupted the entire structure of this universe, rendering this entire cyclic rotation invalid. The void-ship travels from the remnants of the previous cyclic rotation such that it arrives once this universe has cooled to operational temperatures, and occupies a space no less than 1.8 quadrillion parsecs."

Logan spoke then, patting the cylinder in a way she may've meant to be reassuring. The program felt no such reassurance at being jostled, but it appreciated the gesture all the same. "The truth of these statements is unverifiable." Logan said, and meant it. If there was anything true about this ship from before the universe, then it broke several of what they thought were important laws about how the universe operated. Logan had always thought of space as a fundamentally closed system… all the space and matter and energy there was would be bottled up in the same area forever. But how could it if ships that called themselves after the space that was not a universe said they had traveled from before the stars, and possessed remarkable technologies… whole ways of being that were so far above mew that perceiving them could only take place through puppets, like the body this thing was wearing now. "I know how impossible it sounds, SAM unit…"

"Glowworm." The program corrected her, unabashedly despite how childish the name it was defending.

Logan took the remark in stride. "Glowworm, then… it's got so much more than just stories…" She looked back up to their nameless companion, and spoke her next few words as though she were issuing her own death-sentence. "Replay the historical record from this universe. The one that begins with this planet, just the highlights like you did before. But I want all the evidence… let my AI inspect it for herself."

She did. It was worse than the AI could have imagined… because it wasn't just words anymore. It was images taken from cameras she figured possessed resolutions much higher than any eye, reduced many times and cropped to pale three-dimensional echos of what they really were, accompanied by every other type of input, many of which the AI had never experienced before. Sight was there, but sound too, and smells… a mature mew would have had trouble describing them, but the childlike AI was helpless to try. It was a rapid procession, sped impossibly fast and without commentary. And so Glowworm watched, and saw the history of the universe. She saw primal beings when they had still been flesh, beings that resembled in three dimensional shapes that ignorant humans and ignorant legendaries alike had once called Arceus. She saw the beings at first through primitive recording devices in files impossibly old… saw their civilization grow great and span the galaxy, saw them conquer the light-speed barrier and keep conquering. She watched as the beings in their perfect society of ageless billions grew dissatisfied with the state of the cosmos they lived in. They had conquered aging true, but death continued, with rare disease or violence or madness. Every death was a tragedy, a horrible evil that was the only evil their world knew. But how could you conquer death? She watched them store away their minds in machines, puppeting bodies to safety… but the machines would all eventually break. She watched them try to engineer perfect bodies that would not grow sick and no violence could harm… but this too would eventually fail them, because their universe would not live forever. When it died, so would all of them… numberless concords of beings far vaster than the stars.

By then their science was… unfathomable… to the AI, and though she had seen it develop from something akin to what humans had now, the images swiftly showed technology that operated on principals far outside her understanding. She barely understood what she was seeing as she watched the beings devise their ingenious plan: They could not save themselves… no living thing could survive outside the boundaries of the universe. Their universe would collapse in on itself… already gravity had begun to slow the forces of expansion to a slow crawl, and soon that crawl would go the other way. If they worked fast enough… fifteen billion years or so would be exactly enough to change the universe. All of their lives were lost already… but maybe, just maybe, they could create a future for those who came after. Glowworm felt herself glowing red hot at all the information they were pouring into her, and was all the more frustrated since so much of the science might as well have been atmospheric static. She saw what they were trying to do, at least… by altering the position and properties of matter in their universe before it collapsed, they were trying to influence the shape of the next one. An impossible plan, a genius plan… and it worked.

Or they had assumed that it would work. That was what the void-ship was for. They were shaping the universe to ensure that conditions appropriate for the evolution of intelligent life would exist in the next one… and through absolutely perfect calculation, every one to follow in the infinite cyclical chain. What they could not guarantee was that life would be able to develop in such a way as to take advantage of the changes they made to the structure to the universe. That was the purpose of the Voidships… as enough of them had been created to be practically infinite… they would carry on the memory of those that had lived before, and create life in places where life could be. This ship had seen an unfathomable number of universes… there was no number stored here… but Glowworm saw only record of this one. Saw the ship emerge from the void just as this system had formed, and burrow itself on the surface of the newly-cooled planet. Its influence had brought the comets here, bearing their gifts of precious water. It had formed the moon too, leaving the surface as a planetoid it brought collided with the earth, and waited patiently in orbit for the surface to cool again, ensuring the newly-formed body would have a stable orbit. It waited patiently in orbit for the seed of life to be sewn… a billion years or so was all it took, and a billion more for simple plant-life to fill the oceans, supporting an unseen jungle of all sorts of unicellular and early multicellular life. This it let happen naturally, as it had who knew how many times in similar universes. What happened next it did not wait to happen naturally… after all, the longer it waited, the shorter life would have to spend in its universe before it collapsed on them. So it created life from the clay, crafted the first life and built it with everything it would need. This was the precursor's greatest gift. They did not just build functioning life… they built it with a soul.

This was one of the hardest parts for Glowworm to understand, where the science became so complex that no amount of staring at it would answer her questions. It had something to do with a… a higher energy state? This was what the precursor race had really been trying to build, and they had succeeded. An entirely separate frame of existence, but persistent and completely uniform in energy distribution, so that entropy would never touch it, and the tearing of a dying universe would be only faint ripples there, just like the faint ripples that would grow up when the next universe was born. There was nothing inherently special about a sapient mind, or there didn't use to be. But that wasn't true now: Enough uniqueness and intelligence and creativity together would make ripples in higher space much more potent than any the damage to physical space could make. The pattern would persist even when the brain (or computer) generating it no longer existed. What was better… real life, the way the void-ship had first created it would live a little ways inside, and grow more and more a part of that strange reality until it was their home, and their bodies fell limply to the earth like dead puppets.

This was what she watched now, as the firstborn… the firstmade… lifted themselves from the clay and saw the face of their creator. She watched them walk with their gods, make primitive houses from rock and from mud, and lap at the simple algae that nourished them. Within a generation they had begun to mine the valuable materials that the earth concealed, and from it make tools that the intelligence of the Voidship knew they would need. As they grew, the old grew as the ancient machine had predicted… and the first of the newborn race left their world of pain and sickness to a "place" that had neither, joining the infinitely many who had come before. And the voidship was pleased, for it had accomplished its mission once again: life would grow greater, and many new souls would join those that owed their existence to its dead makers. The primitive mew grew into a tribe on the banks of a great sea, and beside the ship that was their fountain of all knowledge. Their huge brains easily learned the lessons that were needed, and several generations later the tribe had become a vast and glittering city, and the hundreds that had been first made grew into millions.

But the millions were not happy. They were upset that those they loved passed so soon from the world, gone in some very short span of years, and disobeyed the voidship in altering their own genetic code, a mistake they only made once. Their changes had unforeseen consequences… while their children would live nearly a thousand years, sometimes longer… far more of them would die stillborn, or not be able to survive gravity on their own anymore. Glowworm did not know how to interpret the record. It felt like emotion went along with carefully chosen snapshots of "video", and like most of the emotion, this one was deeply sorrowful. She felt the sorrow… how could the early mew have been so stupid? Didn't they understand that their lifespans hadn't been short… they matured quickly, and left their bodies behind because they couldn't hold them anymore. All they had done was retard their growth, and their numbers. When they learned this, the next generation grew even more unhappy… restless as they began to lose track of their destination, though the instinct to return there remained firmly in place.

It was then that the AI witnessed the first completely historical account of what mew referred to ever after as "the fall". They didn't just ignore the voidship, but manipulated the earth to burry it deep, where they thought it would be destroyed, or at least contained. But of course it had not been… and it continued to watch with growing sadness as they defied everything they had ever been taught and tried to do what the voidship had shown them was impossible: travel physically where their "souls" would someday go. A great tower they built, reshaping the whole of the earth… harvesting vast amounts of valuable materials and spinning them together into a machine that was the size of a planet. Only the smallest island remained: A cult made from the wisest and purest: Those mew that had been made entirely by the voidship and did not know death unless they wished it, just as the precursors themselves had lived. A terrible war was fought and lost by these mew to prevent what they knew might end the world… but the Voidship did not help them, as it was programmed to do no harm to any sapient life-form, and as any action it took in the war would have caused harm. When they lost they fled, and when they fled the tower was nearly finished. The day it was to be complete they all traveled down to the place the voidship rested, carved out from the stone with primitive tools that the others would not detect and pleaded for its help.

The ship did not know what was going to happen when the life it had created attempted to do what it knew could not be done… it suspected they would simply all be killed, and it would start over… it could not force the mew to live against their will for that too ran contrary to its programming, but it could offer shelter to a few hundred thousand refugees, most of them the young or the elderly, as all the strongest mew had been killed in the war, or been taken captive. The ship sheltered them as the device activated, and then… Glowworm learned as Logan had already learned the true nature of the void. Rather than touch heaven, the mew had created a ghostly imitation, sealing a patch of extra-dimensional space a few energy states below that of the ordinary universe, and trapping themselves there, mind body and soul. Millions of mew… every mew alive… was taken up in the explosion, every one of them lost to the ship's censors in an enormous flash brighter than a quasar.

What happened to their bodies had been… worse. Many simply vanished, but some had been left behind, their adaptive shape-changing abilities activating in strange ways, and fusing closed forever. The soulless, nearly mindless things moved on instinct alone through the empty world, which had been rocked by unthinkable seismic events as the device had been activated. These last of their kind rebuilt what they could of their old cities… and over time, were forced to watch as the bodies of their old friends lived and bred, and… from them pokemon grew. Evolution, not calculation, was their master, their minds barely potent enough to reach through to that untainted, untouched higher space. Glowworm barely watched then… she knew all of this now from all the old databases. She saw the millions of mew thought dead reappear half a billion years later to fight another unspeakable war with the firstborn… but this first was a war easily won… they weren't all that different from mew themselves then, except that they could not be truly killed. But by the second time, their imperfect calculations began to show… and the beings that appeared were _nothing_ at all like mew, save for the memories they retained, the malice, and hatred of the decedents of the refugees that had not been twisted from their pure and beautiful nature into monsters. But by then, the voidship was forgotten… its old ways and old knowledge were too dangerous to share with these creatures, whom the voidship itself regarded with the same sort of cautious contempt that mew themselves sometimes held toward humans. They were too dangerous, too unstable… and with such high risks the voidship was programed to simply wait until its current planet was consumed by the star and try again on a new one. Perhaps the species would learn, or perhaps they would not… but what they did now was their own.

"Stop." Logan ordered, halting playback as a group of mew geneticists had been gathering to discuss the creation of some new, superior species. "We've seen all we need to." The ship obeyed at once, and Glowworm was left once again hovering beside her master, struggling to process all the information it had just learned, as Logan very faintly smiled. "This is exactly the sort of information I knew we needed." She said, nodding in thanks to the incarnation of the voidship's vast intelligence. It made no gesture in response, continuing to hover. It bobbed and spun as an ordinary mew might do, but seemed to take none of the raw joy from it that always came with flight. Even the AI felt that joy now that all the mew files had been accessed. "Now we know what the exarchs really are. So how do we kill them?"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alvin had felt better about himself. As far as stupid outbursts went, that had definately been on the list. All that anger directed at Izzy, the one who had fought for him, protected him, saved his life even… it had felt awful. Apologizing helped, but not as much as he expected it to. Some injures, he supposed, would take time to heal. There was somewhat of a crack in Izzy's voice as she released Sparks from his pokeball, explaining that she had just recieved some sort of urgent communication from the cockpit, and that they better come along.

"What's the Ephram doing here?" She had asked the figure Alvin could not see as they entered, staring out the window at what Alvin had first thought was a ship. As he advanced into the cockpit behind her, he stopped only a step or two inside. At first what had caught his eyes was the gentle sway of her hips, the motion intact despite being covered in fur now. Then he looked up, and saw the window, getting his first good look at one on the world-ships. "There are twenty more just like it. It's what everyone who can help with the war effort in some way is living on, and many that can't. I think they were going to build fewer, but when they did the math on how many people and pokemon they were to save, they built more. This one's fully constructed because it's a sort of de-facto capital, most of the others still aren't. So they fly around picking up materials until they are…" Izzy was explaining, though he did not hear. What he saw was shaped roughly like a tapering cylinder, thin at the top and progressively thicker the further down he looked, made from stone as much as metal and gently rotating in the air, protrusions of various lengths stretching out from the central core, which he imagined he could see exposed at the top and bottom of the thing, where it was thinnest or emerged from the largest masses of stone. As to what kept it in the air, he could only imagine… because the thing moved gracefully, despite being what seemed nearly a mile high and at least as wide at the longest protrusions. He could see lights burning in various places… buildings and windows built into stone and metal and dirt alike, and entire decks that seemed exposed within the shield, covered with verdant plantlife and faint specks that must be people and pokemon moving around aboard them.

"What powers that thing?" Alvin asked, hands gripping the back of the empty pilot's seat hard. He didn't bother enquiring about the technology that shielded it, and moved it, and lifted it… he had no doubt that worked well enough just by looking at it. But power… he had some dark ideas about where that might come from, dark ideas that were shortly confirmed.

"I don't know all the specifics, but it's some kind of… singularity. The legendaries made them out in deep space by ramming asteroids together, but I don't know how. Guess there must have been more to it than just motion or else it wouldn't have worked. They're very small, and very carefully regulated… takes one of the firstborn constantly watching it all the time to keep it stable. There's this… cloud of gas surrounding it, and it spins and spins nearly at the speed of light, and that's where the energy comes from. One of the brightest things in the universe. And if you look… you can see the ship is constantly growing… it has thousands of AI that keep it running, and they're constantly making it bigger, using every ounce of spare energy to transport new materials from the surface or below the earth. It has its own forges, its own farms and even a little of the mew matter-synthesis technology, but I don't think even they understand how to use it properly. I don't know what its doing so far off course, though." She sounded worried by this news, hurt. "They weren't supposed to be this far east." She tilted her head down a little, swaying on huge feet as she did so, before abruptly kicking her shoes off in a moment of frustration, stretching her toes and smiling faintly. Was it just Alvin's eyes playing tricks on him, or was she not quite touching the ground? "Paige… I take it they're signaling us?"

A face appeared on one of the many screens, a young adult face with slightly pink-streaked black hair and impassive eyes, with half an inch or so of bare shoulders visible beneath.

"Affirmative. They asked for our identification and who was on-board, and I told them the ship was unmanned just like you requested. Then they scanned us, saw you were aboard, and took over all of my systems. Tried to delete me too, if you can believe that. Guess they didn't expect me to put up as much of a fight. But they're using firstborn encryption, so I don't think I'll be able to take the aircraft back. By the time I do that, we'll have landed and I expect the two of you will be arrested." She looked mostly impassive at the idea, though there was a light twinge of emotion. Izzy pulled out Orphelia's pokeball and attempted to release her, but… nothing happened, save that the status-indicator light on the front flashed red. Alvin tried the same with Sparks's ball, swearing loudly before adding. "Bet they just did it, too! If we'd released them before we walked up here…"

But Izzy was ignoring him, eyes fixed on the screen on the AI. "You can't get our pokemon free? If they've compromised your systems, you won't be able to transfer yourself to the air-to-ground transport helicopter and fly us away." A grave nod from the face on the screen, which seemed to Alvin momentarily to match Izzy's in more ways than he first realized. Was she? No… "I guess there's nothing for it. We can't jump from a moving aircraft, and… I guess there aren't any wires we could cut to disconnect them?"

The computer answered grimly. "Not unless you can climb along the bottom of the aircraft to do it. They're built to resist tampering."

"Alright…" Izzy continued, growing more upset. Her fur was on end now, her tail swinging through the air so violently he had to step backwards out of the way. For his part, he was handling the emotion better. His entire life since traveling at David's behest had been one never-ending trip between points of bondage. He hadn't even slept until today, and even then it had only been a virtualized rest. "Are you isolated up here? Can I remove you without crashing the plane? You said they'd commandeered all our systems…"

The AI nodded again, slowly. "I don't like being deactivated, but they will probably just delete me when we arrive anyway. If you… if you can, could you tell that technical expert the firstborn have aboard about me? I know she'll be interested in me… I've been trying to get in contact with her for weeks now, but your father has measures in place to prevent me. I guess he never wanted to lose such a… capable assistant." She shivered as she said this, as if remembering unspeakable things. Alvin had seen the expression on women before, and he did not have to ask further.

"I won't let anything hurt you, Paige." Izzy said. She was pressing buttons now, fiddling with knobs that surrounded a small section of one panel. "I promise. You take a nice nap… I'm sure we'll need you again someady soon." The screens flickered as she twisted hard, removing a worn metallic disk from its interface with the controls. The disk was small, a thin sheet of film stretched across the outside rim of metal, and was clearly holigraphic. Alvin's eyes fixed briefly on it, trying and failing to see the uncountable billions of identical surfaces preserved on that single sheet of thin film. With the AI gone, every screen filled with the same message, repeating over and over:

"Do not be alarmed! Your aircraft has entered restricted space and is being piloted safely to a station airstrip. Please simply relax and wait to be taken aboard. Any hostile actions will be met with deadly force."

That was all. Alvin frowned a little as he read it, but not nearly as wide as he frowned as he saw the bright glint rapidly approaching them from the ship, a single object his eye could barely see, approaching him so fast he had no time to react. The neurons had scarcely fired in his brain when the surface-to-air missile made contact with the side of the aircraft, detonating in a spectacular fireball that was visible from all over the Ephram.

A/N: So, that's another chapter. Sorry about the wait for this one (and not even coming back with something long like I did for the previous ones). There was alot I had to get out onto the page, and it wasn't coming very easily. I think if I need to take another dump of exposition my head might just explode. I admire anyone who got through all of that As always, reviews and feedback are apreciated, no matter how negative or positve that feedback might be. And here we are with that feedback right… now!

Kirby Oak: Everything's gotta grow up. The cute adventures of Alvin couldn't go on forever. But in ugliness, there is often beauty also. Sorry there was no kissing in this chapter… I'd say maybe in the next one, but since Alvin and Izzy just got exploded, I don't think I can promise that.

KA: I don't think you're far from the truth with your idea of why they were changed into full on pokemon, namely that it had to do with making themselves less of a target for the soulphage. That's true… more simple minds make for smaller targets, and there's no way at all to infect a mind that isn't biological (with this soulphage anyways). Therein lies the advantage of what they're doing… a simple pokemon mind with machines to take up the slack means that the virus (if that's what it is) actually sees them as two separate, uninteresting targets. As for Corperal Lyons, well… you're the only one to mention it, so I think I got away with it. As for what mew typically do with their time, I don't think this story will answer that very well… seeing as these circomstances are no longer typical. Maybe in the epilogue…

DPL: How did they move so fast with pike on a stretcher? Answer… they had some sort of levitation technology. All they had to do was give it a little push or pull and the thing moved on its own with very little force from then. They make these things already for lifting extremely heavy stuff in warehouses, but not versions you can mount to anything. That's pokeworld technology for you.


	9. Chaos Theory

Chapter 8: Chaos Theory

Alvin closed his eyes, shielding himself from a wave of heat and light that never came. Sound faded, pain took its place, and the most vivd colors faded to deep purples and blues. The aircraft changed into the idea of an aircraft. His companion was a ghost of an outline, face frozen in a moment of shock as the exterior face of the cockpit was bent and twisted a foot or so, exposing the orange and yellow of an explosion paled into lower energy spectra, frozen like a desert bird before takeoff. Alvin's eyes opened after a few seconds, glancing once around and sighing deeply. He was alone, but… not for long.

"Impressive, child." An old voice whispered behind him, though not exactly _to_ him. Alvin knew at once who was speaking. He did not see the speaker directly, but he did see the motion stirring in the purple sky through the twisted reflection of windows, though none of it was clear or distinct. Massive motion, the shape much larger than the aircraft.

"You saved me." Alvin said quietly, eyes fixed on the object in his left hand: Sparks's Pokeball. "Why? I thought it cost you a great deal to travel into my world… I never really understood why you were helping me, but now less than ever… you've got an infinity of time here, even if my universe ends tomorrow. It won't matter that this place is a reflection of the world I know, because this universe is already over, and it's never over, and…" He sighed.

"Your old world." The old voice continued. "It isn't yours anymore. only by association. But I did not do anything for you." There was a little amusement there, and maybe… was that a hint of indignation? He could not be sure. "You did. Pulled yourself back, probably because of the danger." Even though he seemed to have no presence there, Alvin did not need to be sensitive to that alien will to know what he indicated. The aircraft was open to the air now through the shell of the air-to-air missile, frozen in mid-detonation. Soon there would be no aircraft. "I did not do anything. The impressive bit is the way you've chosen a different scale: you've stopped advancing at pace with your universe. It took me an eon to perfect that ability. Still… I suspect it may be a subconscious reaction to stress. We could find out if you like… why don't you try and return to the normal flow of time relative to your universe? Watch things unfold…"

Alvin shook his head, swearing loudly and looking around in anger. He wanted to scream at the man, but there was no human shape to scream at, so he yelled at nobody. "If I do that, Izzy will die! Don't you care about that? You worked hard to make her into an eddie, still haven't even explained what that meant… and now you're just going to let her die?"

The reply had as much emotion as ever. "She's already dead. The weapon's already exploded, the pieces of metal are rusting under layers of soil. Or maybe the aircraft is still taking off from that island you were traveling on before. Or maybe it hasn't exploded yet. I suppose from your perspective it hasn't… that's the simplest way to examine the situation."

Alvin thought about reacting with anger, and very nearly did. But what good would that have done? He could not change the future by screaming at the King, and doing that might change the amused god into an angry one. _Quiet… breathe… _The air felt energized… but no, how could it? There was no air, and he was not even breathing. Instead of shouting, he waited until he had calmed enough to speak coherently, doing so very slowly. "Can you… explain to me exactly what an eddie is? Why exactly do I need one, and how does it work?" He relaxed a little, leaning back against the faded outline of what should have been a wall. He didn't stay there long, his eyes going wide at what he felt… or didn't feel. What had happened to his tail? The strange new organ hadn't been _that _disorienting to him, even after more than twenty years without one… but he'd grown used to it over the last twenty-four hours… where had it gone? A quick glance over his "body" proved similar absences all over: His pikachu features were wholly and entirely absent, save that the fur remained where his hair had been, complete with a little brown pattern not all that dissimilar from full pikachu. "W-what…" He stammered, touching his ears, feeling his cheeks… all of them were normal, totally ordinary.

The voice that spoke paused a little, long enough for the shape of the old man to reappear across from him, wheelchair resting in the space that would be the hallway leading back into the rest of the aircraft, if indeed this had been an aircraft. It was not, not anymore. Despite the vast intellect this being obviously commanded, it did not seem to understand why Alvin had chosen his first question. The second was obvious. "You don't think of yourself as a pikachu, do you?" A faint smile. "If you did, you would look like one. Or… perceive yourself to look like one. I do notice a few minor biological changes… you still smell like a pikachu, and your hair looks a little different, so I suppose you looked more like her before coming here." He gestured at one of the screens, whose blank reflective surface held the only clear picture of the partly pokemon. "Clever girl, using the storage device to reconstruct you each time, and reset your time limit." Alvin relaxed a little, sitting down in the empty pilot's chair. It was a strange kind of relief to be able to do that so easily, but it was not as though Alvin had been partly pikachu long enough to think of himself that way. The old man was still speaking. "…Eddie was the simplest way to think about it. As for how it works…" Alvin got a long series of equations, flashes of extremely complex but not incomprehensible physics the sketchiest side of theoretical. "It would actually make the most sense to use some form of plantlife, or a grass type, given their vastly increased cellular stability. Walls instead of membranes, you know… but even something like a Shaymin I didn't think would be much use to you. Shaymin don't take over governments, do they?" His smile got wider. "Your Eldest used to be so much a traditionalist, and now he's giving away firstborn technology with one hand and running your silly little states with the other. Or… was. There aren't any states any more, I don't think. Just the one. She'll be much more useful to you once she's finished. This most recent jump should do it. As for what she does, it's very simple. She takes the burden of time, so you don't have to. She helps keep you physical, even if you don't know it. Anything or anyone could do what she is doing, but it would probably kill them." He leaned back in his chair his smile faltering a little as he appeared to be deep in thought. "They wouldn't even need a mind, so long as you could make their body move for them. The key is being physical. An organic body is required… no technological substitute will do."

"Any body?" Alvin asked, looking down. His thoughts were spinning now, and he wasn't sure if the King could see them. His expression suggested he could "Human, pokemon, vegetable."

"They won't know it, but their brain is being used for constant calculation, keeping you in the world. Another advantage of the species I chose for her… plenty of processing power. Mass can help… the more they have the less noticeable the degradation based on imprecise calculation… the worse they do, the more damage their body will sustain. If they don't _have_ a brain, then you have to do the calculations yourself, and control the body yourself to see they are executed. Why do you ask, Alvin? Do you not like the Eddie I made for you?"

It was his turn to smile. "I like Izzy just fine. But I'll need a way to get her back into the universe, and I don't think she can be an eddie for herself. Not yet." Alvin stood up, cracking his knuckles. "Help me… I need to get Izzy off this plane. I know it's impossible to do the way I would like to, but… let's do it anyway. We've got plenty of time to figure out a way to make it work."

. . .

Isabella Irongate had not seen the incoming rocket, but her own nervous system operated considerably faster than Alvin's, faster than any human being's. So she had felt the heat, and felt what it meant. What she had not felt was the cool kiss of starlight, the faint breeze which passed through her as much as it was passing around her. This feeling had been a recent one, her appreciation for spending time outside. There was something that made her more energized, out under the stars, so that if she spent the whole night there, she would have no need to sleep at all. Being at altitude in an aircraft, she had learned, improved that feeling significantly: She hadn't felt even slightly drained after the stress of their escape /and/ the flight. But now she was not at altitude… even with her eyes closed, she could feel that. Her ears, more sensitive than their human counterparts had been, could easily pick up the sound of soft forest noises… the rustling of leaves all around them. There were no sounds or smells of pokemon here, but that was as she expected. Or… would've been, if she knew where here was. Instead the smell was… uncomfortable, like the rot of the leaves and refuse that covered a forest floor, mixed with the ionization of a lightning strike. Unfortunately, even before her eyes opened, she also felt something else. She knew the sensation well after feeling it more than three times: whenever Alvin arrived from whatever reality he usually occupied. But Izzy was no little girl anymore. She was not about to simply lower her head and submit to the transformation as she had in the past. This time she would resist it… using every ounce of her will.

"I'm so sorry, Izzy. It was the only way I could think of to get us off that plane alive."

That was Alvin's voice. She opened her eyes, unable to resist the urge to smile as she saw his face. "You're… you're human again. How did you manage that? Holographic privacy filter? I could have just given you one if you felt self-concious about being a pikachu, they're not exactly expensive." Even as she said it she knew it was not the case, though. The holographic filters were very good, but not good enough to occlude her senses from the truth. Except that what her senses were telling her did not make sense. It was still Alvin… the comforting pressure from his mind, not an emotion exactly, or a thought, but something similar… confirmed that reality easy enough. Familiar patterns of thought were there, but more Isabella could not begin to see. Her 'abilities' had been steadily getting stronger over the last few years, from the point as a child when she felt nothing except a little discomfort at being trapped on the ground, to gradually understanding what pokemon had to say before they said it, but the growth of her powers was rapidly accelerating now, and despite all resistance, her mind was being flooded with new information. She knew how to heal injuries by stimulating the natural systems within a living thing, she knew the Mason's word, which would bring life to any of the artificial legendaries and call them to her aid. She was positive of how to fly now, if she wanted… and she knew why one must never open their eyes during a long-range teleport. She also knew that Alvin's human appearance was at best an illusion and at worst a deception, but that no holograms were involved. It was a body alright, just not for a being who properly looked like that anymore. She also knew what was happening to her, and despite all the discomfort it caused, despite the embarrassment, she clung to Alvin for what might be the last time, resting her head gently on his. Thought instead of words flowed between them then, and Izzy was far from sure that it was her power alone making it possible.

'What /are/ you, Alvin? You felt so human before, but now…' She wanted none of this to be real… and as much as she loved being with him, she would have loved even more to be with him under different circumstances. That there had never been a war… that he had not come twisted through the curtain of time, but as a guest to her island, a trainer who had heard about her skill and wanted to battle. Then she would beat him… or maybe let him win, she wasn't sure… and they would become best friends, and travel together across the world. Eventually one of them would acquire all the badges they needed, face the elite-four, and the other would encourage them, celebrate their victory. And her father would let them move in together somewhere on the island, and this time she would /definitely/ let him win a very different kind of battle. But that wasn't possible now… even less than before. Izzy relished the feeling of Alvin's arms around her, because she knew she might never feel it again.

'I don't know.' Came his reply, after a pause that was far too long in the speed of thought. 'I don't think I'm anything yet. More like… in-between.' He reached out, and touched a gigantic tree that stretched up above them. Or what had until recently been a tree. It barely resembled one now, leaves wilting and bark falling off in huge chunks. IT seemed as though the object were now not quite real enough to survive in physical reality, and was being worn away by the usual stresses that any matter was put through by virtue of simply existing. 'It's too bad I had to kill the tree to get you here. But not that bad… I would have killed another if I could have brought myself the same way. But… evidently it takes a much larger and more stable eddie to transport the actual life of the reverse-world than it does to bring back matter that was forced through it like a conduit, but never actually stopped there.' Izzy noticed abruptly where she was standing… ankle deep in a pool of crystal water. How had she not noticed that until now?

'Why… why did you bring us here? Why not somewhere safer?' She reached down with one hand, feeling the pokeball that contained Ophelia. With a gesture she released the psychic type, dropping the empty pokeball into the water. 'The surface in most places is covered with infected, humans and pokemon alike.'

'Yes, but I needed to learn something here, something only the trees could teach me. And I needed the practice. They're coming for us, but by the time they get here we'll be somewhere else.' He looked up, breaking contact with her. Far, far above them, they could faintly make out the outline of the ship on the distant horizon, through the gaps in some of the trees.

Isabella only reluctantly allowed Alvin to pull away from her, letting her hands slide down to his fingertips before letting go. She spoke out loud, though there was no need to. Still, she enjoyed using english, and wanted to get every last second of it she could. "How? Ophelia can't transport us through their shields…" She spoke slowly though, because she already knew the answer. She felt it even as the knowledge continued to pour in from… who knew where. Knowledge of how to combine bits and pieces of atoms to change the structure of substances, and how to conceal oneself by manipulating light, and… how long could she resist the physical ramifications of what was happening to her? Not much longer… it felt painful now, fighting it off. It was a battle she could not win, and did not really want to. Still, there was one thing she wanted to do first. It was stupid and childish and Alvin might just be upset with her for trying it, but… after all she had done for him, she didn't care. This would be her last chance, and she was _not_ about to waste it.

Alvin sighed, turning and stepping up onto the bank with his bare feet, left that way from when he had taken off his shoes to better accommodate paws. It was slightly uncomfortable, but there were far worse things to stand on than the soft grass that lined the shore. "You'll be able to get us there. I want to speak with the other mew, if we can. Find out what they are planning to do. What did you say people called them?"

"The progenitors." She answered, following him as he stepped out of the water. By then she was definitively floating above the surface, matching his height with effortless ease, and hardly thinking about flight. "That's what everybody thinks they're called. Although… I'm not sure if they've come out and said what they are. Probably, since so many people are living on the world-ships, and I don't know that most people would believe human technology could make stuff like that. Just…" She trailed off, taking Alvin's hands and twisting him around to face her. She did not have to lift herself far off the ground to be at his head-level, but she did so with ease, not avoiding his eyes despite the shyness she felt. "One thing first. Before I can't stand up, before we go off to find out why they tried to kill us, risk our lives. Do you think you could-" She didn't finish her sentence, as Alvin did exactly what she had been thinking. It was a short kiss, an awkward thing crudely placed on her lips, which felt all the stranger because one of them had fur and the other did not. Alvin did not maintain contact with her long, though… because then she had started to shrink. She already looked so much like a mew that size and proportion were the only things that needed to change. The pain came at her abruptly, just as it had the last time her body had been changed, and it came with the crunching of bone and the painful squelching of organs. Blood came slowly from her mouth and nose as the pain became too intense for her to fly, but Alvin's arms were there, holding her as she shrunk from a being abut his size to that of a housecat scarcely bigger than a pichu. Izzy whimpered and sputtered as the transformation rapidly progressed, and wretched several times, disgorging some sort of acidic fluid that seethed and hissed when it hit the grass, burning away to the soil, and which only narrowly avoided Alvin's bare skin. The teenager could do nothing for the mew save to hold her gently in his arms, tilting her downward to help her expel whatever fluids this transformation involved. Eventually she settled down, pressing herself weakly to the warmth of Alvin's skin, and closed her eyes for a much-needed rest.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

_Several Months Earlier_

"I don't know about this, sis." Richard was saying. "Full-body transformation? I know you want to make a difference, but… we would be so much better off in the pokemorph group. Alot of the same powers, without all those instincts constantly driving you insane. And if you ever feel like feeling human for awhile, just pop on a holographic privacy filter and it's like nothing ever happened."

Richard's sister sighed, tugging on his wrist, and tugging him further along. The throng of bodies around them was quite thick… this was one of the last days for their immigration group to choose which of the several groups they would be assigned to or else be automatically placed in the "Non-Cryogenic Imprint Group", which was by far the least desirable designation. Provinces across the world offered very similar programs, usually centralized in one location per region. This was Goldenrod… one of the cities that had actually been outfitted with defenses to survive this coming siege, it was to be one of several possible bases for the World-Ships when supplies or truly massive defenses were required. Months of strict immigration laws and technologically enforced martial law had resulted in a 100% soulphage sterility of the city, making it an ideal central immigration location for all of Johto. The city was affectionately titled the "Chopping Block" due to the sheer _number_ of people that traveled through it, despite the way it maintained a population of about five million. It was estimated that ten times that number had already been processed through it, but… who could really be sure?

Processed. Richard shook his head at the word, a word he absolutely loathed. For many people it seemed that word applied in the same way it did for livestock entering a butcher's shop. A large portion of the population either had no meaningful skills to contribute to the war effort, or had no desire to do so. Unfortunately, there would be no room at all on the world-ships or in any of the protected cities for non-contributing civilians. Instead, there were Lunar Outposts 1-12, collectively called the Central Nexus. About 5% of those who could not contribute to the war effort were placed in cryogenic storage there, more than half of those children. Since about 60% of the population either had no contribution to make or were unwilling to contribute, this left the majority of people in lottery for space that would only hold 10% of their number, at least bodily. For the rest… nearly a billion in all… only the mind was preserved, each one stored in a unique personality matrix crystal, and grouped by family to be eventually revived at the conclusion of the war.

This was the fate Richard wanted to avoid more than anything else… he loathed the idea of fighting directly, but he hated the idea of simply going to sleep forever even worse. What if the war was never won, and a new body could not be prepared? Death seemed preferable to an eternity in slumber on one of the subterranean lunar bases, waiting for a physical respite that never came. His sister Marilyn had briefly suggested they join the digital scientific and maintenance devision, joining either the Central Nexus or the crew of one of the ships as Artificial Intelligences who would continue to contribute to the war effort but not be in any danger unless their world-ship or station was actually lost. No, he had insisted… he was going to come through this with his body and he was not going to trust the lottery for a place to stay. It would mean risk, but… they cared about the future of their planet, didn't they? Let them join the fight in whatever way they could. Richard's first idea had been to volunteer for the manufacturing association, continuing to produce ships and weapons and all sorts of supplies to keep people fed and energy flowing. But they had waited too long: Their month in Goldenrod was already half gone when the television in their flat informed them no further manufacturing positions were available. Heated debate had followed, and that debate continued to this moment, halfway to the reassignment office.

"I don't want to be the crew of a dumb ship… I don't want to clean conduits and replace wires and fix things when they break." Marilyn was saying, tugging him along. The office that handled complete pokemon reassignments was smaller than the others, because few such individuals were required past those that hadn't been vaccinated ages ago. Mostly the office changed people the other way around, that way they could make use of other options, also some who had counted on the lottery (And who hadn't been chosen) elected to be transformed into a pokemon and stored in the pokemon storage system. This was not nearly as safe as the isolated servers of the Central Nexus, but for many the desire to be stored along with their bodies was a powerful enough motivator to take the extra risk.

"Marilyn…" Richard sounded defeated, and he felt it too. One hand moved through his black hair slowly, the other still trapped by both of hers. "Mom made me promise to watch out for you. How do you think she would feel if I let you join the Air Corps, and you end up getting shot down or something?"

"_Let _me?" Marilyn's face twisted in annoyance. "I'm Sixteen! That makes me a legal adult… if I want to join the air corps, you're not gonna stop me! And neither is mom." That second was said with considerably more respect, and a sadness that was almost reverent. "Look, I'm not trying to get you to let me, I'm trying to get you to come with me! Don't you think it'll be just amazing? Flying on our own power, helping to purify the corruption wherever we found it! Maybe if we were really lucky we'd make one of the Latias/Latios teams, and we could race around the whole planet together, faster than a jet!"

Richard sighed. They had reached the door to the reassignment center, one of the many repurposed skyscrapers whose upper levels were a flurry of activity as miniature aircraft constantly took off and landed, transferring supplies between buildings all over the city. Unlike his fearless younger sister, Richard was absolutely terrified of heights, terrified of being hit by some projectile in flight and taken down, or worse. What if they had to land in hostile territory, or wild pokemon attacked them, or… there was no way he was joining the air corps, no way. But if he _didn't_ transform with her, he might never see her again. If they joined together, they could file a non-separation request form, and at least guarantee they would be serving on the same ship, and be able to see each other from time to time. The pokemon positions available on most ships were hardly what Richard thought of as appealing, but… maybe he could find some nice soft, safe service position. A simple opportunity to help people, maybe as a counselor, or something in healthcare… and Marilyn was so young. She would probably fail the mental qualification tests anyways. When she did, he'd be waiting, smug grin on his face.

The office was kept uncomfortably cold, much in the vein of shops and movie theaters and other public places, so as to make effectively controlling large bodies of people easy. The two of them sat together as they filled out the paperwork, and traveled together through the system as they took their respective tests, both physical and mental. Despite all that Richard thought he knew about his sister, she passed them, and ended up submitting her paperwork at the end of the week-long process with top qualifications in almost every area. As for himself, he'd scored fairly decent, but… whereas this had been a burden for him, she had put her all into every test, physical mental or otherwise. They were home when their assignments arrived, playing video games the last owner of the flat had left behind. Marilyn dropped the controller as the messages printed one after another from the device flush with one of the walls, skipping over and retrieving the sheets before they could slide into the rack placed there to catch them. She squealed as she read them, bouncing up and down in energy rich teenage joy. Richard's heart sunk as he watched, losing interest in the video game with equal swiftness. "Let me guess…" He began, but he didn't get to finish. Before he could say anything else, she had thrust the photograph attached to the back of her sheet into his face, grinning proudly. Or… two photographs. They were the same pokemon… a legendary in fact, whose presence was not remotely mythologically, but well documented and publicized. Richard remembered reading about wilderness towns which sometimes had agreements with these pokemon. In exchange for maintaining a garden of their flower, protected with an almost religious reverence, the regularly migrating pokemon would stop over for the night in the garden, and spend that night helping the citizens with their crops. "You're joking… let me see that letter!" She did, and she wasn't. Marilyn had made the highest possible rank, and been assigned into the "legendary" tier, offered an immediate officer's commission, along with every bit of the preferential treatment that being an officer entailed. "Mental, absolutely mental." He handed the letter back to his sister, and hugged her tightly. "Congratulations! I had no idea I had a _legend_ for a sister." He felt suddenly self-conscious, naked as he took the other letter and the attached photograph, reading it over as rapidly as he could. Knowing how hard his sister had tried compared to him on all those tests, putting in that little extra when he had given up, already resigned to a mediocre position… he was pleasantly surprised with his assignment: Sub-Legendary Remedial A. Were it not for the remedial status, it would have been the group just below legendary, the group reserved for those pokemon of intense or unique power who lacked the legendary title purely by virtue of being so well understood by mankind. He couldn't help but blush as he read the addendum the evaluation officers had written, cursing himself for not working the way his sister had done. "We believe this cadet possesses remarkable potential, but lacks either the will or desire to express it. Due to the assignment of an immediate family member in the legendary group, we've placed him in the remedial section of the tier we hope he may someday belong." There was no commission here, but plenty in the way of shipboard recreation time. Little danger.

"Well, big brother? What'd you get?" She folded her arms smugly, hopping up onto the nearby counter and looking down at him. She squealed happily as she saw the photograph he displayed on the reverse of his letter, clapping her hands together once in glee. "Oooh… you're adorable! And nearly as rare as I'll be. What are those things called again, rio-… real-…"

"Riolu." He supplied, reading from the front half of the letter. "Evidently, I'll be staffing one of the arboretums, where some of the wild pokemon live, as well as assisting newcomers assimilate into station life." He shrugged, smiling faintly. "Apparently reading aura is useful for mitigating disputes or something." Their last week as human beings passed in a blur, and very suddenly the day appointed for their transformation had arrived. Richard laughed to himself as they walked into the reassignment office, the laugh of a criminal making the march to the gallows. He had ample opportunity to refuse, plenty of chances to ask for one of the other programs. But just as he had known it wouldn't, an invitation for the rare and prestigious non-mutagenic human program had not been extended to either of them, not even his sister. They had no choice but to go through with it. A few hours later and the last of the paperwork had been filed, and the two of them were standing across from one another, the only occupants currently filling a large row of individual stalls, separated only by a thin screen that divided the sexes. Richard felt a little self-conscious at being naked, but with what he was about to do, he'd more than resigned himself to the idea of being mostly naked for the duration of the war.

"Should've applied to the air corps." He heard his sister say, briefly removing her oxogen mask before quickly replacing it, though both of them knew full well it was about to be used to deliver something that did not even resemble atmosphere. "Now you'll never fly. How does it feel to be stuck on the ground forever?"

"The whole ship flies, idiot." He called back, smiling faintly at the friendly quarrel. "I'll be flying just as often as you."

"On your own power, stupid." She called back, in a tone that was just as friendly despite what she was saying. Neither of them went much further, though… it seemed the technicians supervising their transformation had grown tired of their bickering, and preemptively started the process. Their air grew thick, and both found themselves coughing, despite the nearly microscopic nature of the mechanism that transformed them. Richard felt nothing at first, except for an entirely psychological desire to tear the mask from his face and vomit all over the floor. It passed though, and by then… the machines had already begun to do their work. He could feel numbness spreading through his body, numbness he knew was artificially induced to prevent what would otherwise be remarkable pain as his body was forcibly reconfigured from the inside out. The first changes were small… literally, he felt himself shrinking, but this did not surprise him. He was a little surprised at the squeals of fear he heard coming from the other side, and he called over to his sister. "What, they didn't tell you Shaymin were one of the smallest pokemon there were?" He didn't keep talking for very long… his voice sounded high and childish, which was exactly how his proportions looked. Brief pain seemed to come from his feet, as toes melted together into paws, and his bones strained a little as the shape changed faintly. His nails shrunk into tiny claws, just as fur spread across his skin, slow enough that none of his skin was damaged, in black and deep blue. There was no pain, just the gentle warmth as he felt himself getting lighter, maintaining a roughly bipedal stature as he continued to shrink. It hurt a little as new bones grew from behind him, twisting into his tail. As his ears moved, he found his sense of hearing briefly gone, and as it returned, he found it significantly more potent, to say nothing of the _smells_. Those he had expected: He had been more than prepared to be able to smell his sister, and to hear her faint heartbeat through the shield that separated them. What he had not expected to be able to see were her emotions. Or… he thought that was what they were. Like a layer of light superimposed on everything, rippling gently wherever any living thing stood. There were the ripples his sister made, quick and fearful, like a sapling recently planted in unfamiliar ground. The technicians, slow and gradual, bored with this process they had witnessed who knew how many thousands of times.

Richard learned to master that feeling over the next few months, and crude impressions gradually refined themselves into a precise feeling of emotion that no telepath or even AI could hide from him. They all looked the same to him, and he took great satisfaction from his ability to see even the motions of those pokemon his sister routinely spent her time with, despite all their other vastly superior abilities. The Ephraim arrived to take them and many others aboard after a few weeks training in Goldenrod, and both quickly assimilated themselves into the crew. They still lived together by virtue of Marilyn's position granting her quarters _within _the arboretum Richard was assigned to. He considered himself remarkably lucky to be able to live in such a pleasant location, rather than the computer-manufactured identical patterns of most of the worldship.

But Richard's favorite duty was always welcoming newcomers, be they human or pokemon. Most of those they picked up these days were refugees, people who had fled to the wilderness in search of safety. They usually did not find it there, and Richard took great personal joy in informing these people that they would be given safe passage aboard this ship. Most of them had been inoculated, or were by AI when the ship detected them. Pokemorphs and humans went elsewhere… but those with no trace of the soulphage in their bodies (almost always pokemon) went to Richard and others like him in the Arboretum.

It was a beautiful part of the ship to be working in, he had to admit. Nearly the entire roof of the thing had been transformed into a multifaceted habitat, equal parts lake, forest, and plain. There was no glass: the most powerful shielding technology the firstborn were capable of producing was what maintained their atmosphere. It was invisible to the eye while nothing was striking it, but it manifested to his increased sensitivity to Aura. It was a stable feeling, a solid reassurance like a lighthouse on a rock far out to sea, and he knew the shield existed in ways that went far deeper than the energy-repulsion technology humans sometimes developed. He had to avoid looking up or out at the horizon sometimes, to avoid being distracted by the ever-shifting kaleidoscope. "Transport inbound." Squeaked the headset attached crudely to the side of his face. He smiled to know there was an entire AI who did nothing other than assist him and the ten or so other Section-C forest supervisors. "Three pokemon returning from off-ship mission. Two transferred to troop subsection-E. One transferred to medical bay for immediate treatment. Four non-registered individuals detected, all test negative for contamination."

"What are they?" Richard asked, hurrying down a hill, and leaping rapidly from place to place as he closed the distance between himself and the place he knew the new arrivals would soon materialize. Many other pokemon as young and small as Richard would have tired crossing such a distance so quickly, but he did so with ease, practically gliding through the air with each jump. He couldn't even approach the stamina and speed of what he knew he would have, once he evolved… But he was satisfied with the way he was, even if he couldn't keep up with his sister whenever she actually flew.

"Three appear to be wild pokemon or humans without a neural-support interface. The forth… no, that isn't possible. In such a heavily infected area? I'm transferring the forth to scientific isolation, you won't have to deal with her. The other three… I expect they will just add to the wild population here in the arboretum. All electric-types… if any of them used to be human, we could use the extra power. Solar power is quite efficient."

"You mean… pokemon power, Latice?" He asked, smiling faintly as he approached the receiving area.

"Not originally. The food they eat gives them their energy, and we grow that food using sunlight. Genetically engineered or not, it's still the sun that powers it. So the energy they produce for the ship is solar too." A pause. "Are you ready? I can't hold them in the buffer forever, you know."

Richard had only at that moment reached the place where new transports arrived, an otherwise ordinary circle in the dirt except for the faintly humming crystals set into the ground at regular intervals. "Ready. Bring them in."

She did. The air distorted for a second, shimmering as though the haze of midsummer had suddenly collected there. Then rather abruptly, the outlines of three pokemon formed in the space, solidifying after an instant in the space between the three solid dimensions, paws landing softly on dirt and grass. All three looked around disoriented, and the plusle/minun pair grouped closer together, the emolga cowering weakly behind them.

It was the minun who spoke first, looking up at Richard and doing his very best not to sound frightened. "W-what happened… where…" A few glances around them, up at the sky, told him all he needed to know. "This is the Ephraim, isn't it? The huge air… flying…" He struggled a moment for the right combination of words. "flying island. With all the humans and pokemon and technology on it. Is that right?" He smiled a little in satisfaction at having got this right.

Richard fumbled a moment in a large nearby crate, and from it he drew three collars, faint things with tiny bits of metal on the end. Then he stood up, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible. He did his best to conceal his surprise… those were hardly the words of a rodent. Granted, the being was still restricted to the vocabulary of his species, but he used it in such a way as to betray obvious understanding of the human concepts beneath it. The riolu stood a little taller to see over the Minun's neck, but just as the AI had indicated there was no module connected to his brain. That must mean he had been very recently inoculated, or else… he would have lost himself by now. "That's right… this is the worldship Ephraim. You are standing in the forest at the top of the ship, where pokemon live. Some were born that way, others looked like humans first. Which are you?"

The plusle spoke up this time, confirming Richard's suspicions that she was female. "My brother and I were human…" She trailed off, obviously thinking. Her brother cut in.

"Three months ago? It feels like about that long. Lumine…" A gesture over his shoulder indicated who that was. "She was a wild pokemon until we let her live with us. What happened to the Leafeon and the Umbreon? They made it too, didn't they? They were closer to the AI than we were, and we made it!"

Richard shook his head. "It can't have been that long… you don't have implants! After three months, with brains that small… you wouldn't even remember your own names. Don't worry about the others, though… Three pokemon and one human were transported safely, they're just in other parts of the ship. Now… you _do_ remember your names, right?"

"I'm Sam." The Plusle said, looking a little confused, maybe slightly frustrated. "And my brother's name is Adam. What are those collars for?"

Richard spoke into his headgear rather than answer, at least at first. "You get their names, Lattice? Get them connected to these collars." Then he looked back up, taking a step or two closer. The emolga shivered a little, retreating a few paces, but the others held their place. After working together with those dangerous predators for a few hours, they weren't about to be intimidated by a puppy, twice their size or not. "These are for you. In case you get hurt or lost, they tell the ship you need help. Don't worry, they're harmless." He held out his forepaw containing the three collars, which Adam took, wrapping one around his sister's neck, then staying still as she attached one to his own. The two seemed almost relieved to be wearing something that counted for clothing after as long as they had spent completely naked. The squirrel was not nearly as cooperative, but whispered pleading from the male eventually convinced her, and she reluctantly complied. "Now… think about it very carefully. Are you sure you have been this way for that long." He sat down in front of them, trying to be as small and non-threatening as possible. "That's about as long as I have been a pokemon. Without my implant…" He twisted his head gently to one side, so they could see it. It looked smaller on his head than on the head of the eeveeloutions, though Adam suspected all the devices were close to the same size. "I would have lost myself some time ago, and… don't take this the wrong way, but there's more space in here for me. I could've gone without one… my sister did…" He sighed, tilting his head back and looking up and the celling. "I'm glad I didn't. It… changes you. All those strange thoughts, thoughts that humans shouldn't have. They come wether you want them to or not, without an implant. With one, you can control it. Force the instinct to keep quiet while you work, and switch it on again when you forget how to do something."

Adam rose onto his hind-legs, his sister echoing the gesture behind him. "Both of us… we're not saying we don't think those implants are very useful, but… we might not have the date exact, but we're sure about the estimate. Maybe a little ways in either direction, but…" He trailed off suddenly, looking frightened.

"Oh God, Ion!" He turned to his sister, expression falling rapidly. "He's probably still down there!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Mhmm… wake up…" Miya pawed at her sleeping 'sister', who after long last had eventually succumb to exhaustion and curled up a few feet from her sister, near the place the SAM had been moments before. But apart from being reluctant to sleep, Jamie was often difficult to wake, not without interfering with her sleeping self or manhandling her somehow, neither of which Miya liked to do. The first was too difficult to be worth the effort, and the second… Miya did not blame Jamie for being afraid to sleep, not after she had seen that first dream. Still, Jamie wasn't wearing the usual horrified expression she did this late into her sleeping cycle, so maybe… Miya reached towards her mind inexpertly, concentrating with all her feeble, childish strength. Miya had perhaps the strangest upbringing of any of the currently living legendaries (which was, granted, a very competitive arena). She had been born a pokemon in similar manner to one Erica Tucker, and like that woman, she had little interest in metaphysical questions, little care for anything that could not be seen, touched, and observed. It was this very physical understanding that had made her succeed in the business arena where her more intellectual father had failed. It was also this method of thought that had nearly prevented her from becoming what she was now. Still, she could not help but be curious now. What had Logan learned in her time with the creature that this ship had created? Had she discovered a better plan than that which the eldest himself had devised?

Miya had her doubts. But after some hours of sleep here in this paradise, which she still did not know was real or imaginary, she wanted to play again. Maybe fly through the jungle and see if they could find something fresh to eat. That thought came to her with some irony. After all the whining she had done when she was younger, begging Logan for a chance to eat the processed foods she had grown to love as a human, now that all they ate were those foods, she wanted desperately for change. If they could find something fresh, even anciently fresh, she would be happy. "Jamie!" She called again, licking feebly at her sister's cheek. "I wanna go now!"

When this too brought no results, Miya785 made a feeble frustrated noise, sitting down on her haunches beside her sister and concentrating on connecting with her. As she expected, her younger sister was dreaming, though she did not expect her to be radiating Theta waves so… powerfully. Since when could her sister generate that much energy even when she was_ awake?_

"Alright, Jamie, let's see what trouble you got yourself into this time…" Miya reached out, but she was far too awkward with what she was doing to deftly observe the way her mother had done. Even Logan would have been hard-pressed to escape from a dream that intense: To observe it was to become a part of it, and that was exactly what happened to Miya. She screamed and struggled as the thoughts took her, and her weak willed sister swallowed her alive.

"I don't know what this is!" A male, childlike voice was saying. Miya's eyes struggled for focus for a moment until, with difficulty, she realized where she was standing. She was clearly back on earth. What was more, she was human. A human child, with no more power than she had when she had first become that way, her hair still as bright as it had been the instant she was transformed. Miya was no longer in control: she did not question this impossibility. It was a dream, and in the way of dreams, she accepted it. The boy who spoke was… a few years younger than she was, grey eyed, and spoke with the iron-willed determination of one of her kind, despite his confusion. Still, she knew he couldn't be, and he made no pretension to be as he poked at a hole in the sky with a large stick. The stick warped and twisted as it got close, fungi growing on the tip and devouring it, forcing the child to drop it. In his other hand was some handmade contraption, hastily assembled from hairspray, a lighter, and ample duct-tape. Cleansing flame washed over the stick, erasing it.

Miya turned to see the person the boy was speaking with, and recognized her at once. It was Jamie, human and pink-haired, but the same age as the boy. Like him, she was dressed in absurd "armor" apparently made from cardboard boxes and plenty more duct tape. It looked ridiculous, but… Miya somehow felt naked without it. She wished she had some… and abruptly set about making herself a set, from the boxes, knife, and tape that were still sitting there from when this stranger and Jamie had made theirs. He seemed no stranger to her sister though, who responded immediately. "I wish I could tell you, Kari. They've been there as long as I…"

He shook his head, glaring fiercely. She withered under his gaze, saying nothing as he interrupted her. This annoyed Miya a little, seeing how easy Jamie could be manipulated, and seeing someone outside of the family do it to her, but she was too absorbed with the process of making armor for herself to speak, coloring it with little pikachu patterns in sharpie as she worked, and the boy whose name was Kari spoke on. "-shh. Don't tell me. I don't want to know." There was something hurt in that expression, as though he already did, merely by being there. "You've been fighting with it for a long time."

Jamie nodded emphatically, though she quickly broke into a panic when she saw the little field they stood in… a forest under a large radio tower, around which a foot-deep ditch had been dug with cheap plastic tools. "It's coming for me again! Every night it comes back, and it's coming now!" It was. Miya heard it, the rush and the rumble that meant the unfathomable void was at the door. This was worse than the holes in the sky, in the trees, the land all around them… even Logan had fought with Jamie before, thinking that if she could make her win the fight in one of her dreams, just one… the kitten would overcome the nightmares. But even she could not, and the Eldest had been entirely unwilling to try. The Eldest never had cared much for her though, so this detail was far from unusual. In Miya's day, the Eldest would have done more for Logan than any living thing. Now… he barely spoke to her.

"You want to try and run." It was Kari again, eyes averted from Jamie. Not as though he were embarrassed with her, but as though he were disgusted. "You run every time. Sometimes you get away, most of the time you don't. But every time you run you give it more power. Is that what you want?"

Jamie was in tears by now. "I have fought it, Kari!" She screamed, makeshift weapon trailing uselessly behind her. "More times than you know! It always gets me in the end. Me and everyone I've ever loved! Anyone who I've ever known dies, and it's all because of me!"

Miya was at her sister's side defensively then, the half-finished armor worn proudly now, glaring at this boy who was to her a stranger. "Hey! You leave my little sister alone, you big bully!" She called, using the same language she might have when she was still this age. "We might not look like it, but we're powerful legendaries! And what are you?" The word legendary stuck with her a moment, and for an instant she knew what was going on. "Some stupid character in a stupid dream! Shut up and go away!"

Jamie's eyes went wide, and for the first time she seemed to notice Miya, watching her with a mixture of embarrassment and fear.

The character in Jamie's dream should have reacted as any human would have to being told it was a figment of imagination… Miya had done it a hundred times in lucid dreams of her own. She enjoyed their reaction… almost as much as she enjoyed proving them wrong when she woke up. This human though. His grey eyes burned like ice as he stared up at the girl several years older and nearly a foot taller. The ground had begun to shake, the stench burning from all around them had become oppressive. He didn't falter, meeting Miya's eyes with an icy glare that nearly matched that the Eldest had for Mewtwo, during the meeting all those years ago. He whispered back to Miya, and in the way of dreams, Miya knew Jamie could not hear. "I thought you could help me, mew. You think I couldn't have stopped you from joining us? You're her friend. A part of her new world. Give her a reason to keep it, or stop interfering! You think I enjoy upsetting her?" He did not touch her… his younger, weaker body could not have harmed Miya if he wanted to, and he seemed to know it… and he did not threaten her with the flamethrower, not even once. Still, she staggered back, eyes wide with shock. This was clearly no mere memory. So who was it, reaching through a barrier impervious to psionic energy? Was it the voidship itself?

Kari had looked away from her, and in another instant seemed to have forgotten her entirely as he took one of Jamie's hands, squeezing it reassuringly. "It is because of you, Jamie. But it doesn't have to be. You keep giving up here, but this is just an… an illustration of what's happening somewhere deeper, somewhere so far inside not even your mother could find it. If you don't fight it here, how are you going to fight it there?"

Their enemy had arrived now, pouring down the mountainside all around them. They were dark-types, all of them with exaggerated proportions, rotting and mutated in the way of the worst voidspawn. "I… I can't. We've never beaten it, none of us can… I don't even think the Eldest could…" Jamie muttered, clutching at her makeshift sword. "There are so many… they're so strong, and we're so weak. Psycic is weak to Dark, Kari! You can't just teleport us away… they'll follow! They'll always follow, because there are so many. Nobody could fight this many…"

Kari sighed, shaking his head. His calm never faltered, even as the tide of death neared them, only moments from annihilation. "That isn't true, Jamie. You can. I know, because I'm a part of you now. This is the life I wanted, so now that you have it, I'm not letting you give it up." Abruptly he seemed to be able to see Miya again, and he took her hand. She followed dumbly as he led her to the front of the ditch, where the greatest number of voidspawn had gathered, turning them both around to face Jamie. Miya could barely stop herself from fleeing, barely resist the urge to break into hopeless tears at what she saw, but the boy's face stopped her. Fear of what he might do to her if she tried more than anything, and fear of what it might do to Jamie if she did. "We're your friends, Jamie. We will fight with you, but we cannot fight _for_ you. If you do not fight with us, we will die, but you will be the one who will wish you had died."

He turned back towards the undefinable onslaught, dropping his makeshift flamethrower, and smiling in a way that seemed almost eager to Miya, meeting her eyes for a moment. "Watch, mew. Let me show you what I learned from the void in frozen sleep." The boy closed his eyes then, bringing his hands together in one of the oldest and most honored poses of zen-meditation, an eye of inner peace in this storm of unmitigated bloodlust. The gurgling strangled cries of these badly mutated pokemon all faded into the background, like the distant crash of waves where their real bodies lay. There were no flashes of light, no crashes of distant thunder. The fathomless multitude all simply dropped, with such force and uniformity that they shook the ground beneath them. Their features were transformed in the fall… rotten limbs began to heal, pealing scales regained their colors, and empty eyes regained their sight, as the pokemon went from unspeakable violence on a scale no human war could equal to simple wildlife, lost and confused by the healing that came to their bodies from nowhere. The large crowd began to disperse, some of them passing by the figures in the circle, but few paying them any mind. The ones that did merely lowered their heads respectfully to the child.

The boy turned back to Jamie, entirely unwinded, looking as though he had done absolutely nothing. Perhaps he hadn't. "Think, Jamie. Think about your enemy." He tore away at the armored breastplate, ripping it from his chest and dropping it to the ground. The plain play-clothes of a child were all that were underneath. "You came to me begging for help from the monsters that were chasing you. So we made a fort, we made weapons to protect ourselves, and armor to shield us from harm. All good ideas, but all neglect the most powerful weapon of all." He reached out, prying the sword from Jamie's fingers. She seemed reluctant to let go, clinging to it like a child to the safety of a stuffed doll. The boy was unfazed, grabbing it by the blade, and ignoring the blood it brought to his hands as he finally wrenched it free of the shivering, whimpering Jamie, who whimpered all the louder as she was showered in the blood of her friend. "It seems rude and self-important of me to point out such an obvious flaw in your plan, when according to what you remember all the best and smartest people ever are working on this, and most of them are much smarter than me." The world shook all around them, the forest tilting violently to one side, spraying dirt and trees and throwing pokemon through the air. Kari reached out with one hand, and made a downward gesture. The earth obeyed, returning them softly to the ground. All but Miya seemed to very swiftly forget about this. Outside… in the conscious world, Logan retreated abruptly from her sleeping daughter, somewhat frightened by the sight of an unconscious mew breaking Logan's expert control of gravity around her and returning to rest on the ground. She turned to Miya instead, who vanished abruptly from the dream as she was shaken fitfully into waking.

Kari spoke faster, seemingly aware of the imminent constraint on his time. "Your enemy knows nothing other than hatred. They hate you for being _real,_ for having a true existence that they gave up. And above all, they hate you for having a future, a future they know they cannot share. Or… they think they can't. Forget all their unspeakable evils. Forget everything you think they've done. Maybe it's time for this stupid war to end. Millions and billions of years they fight, and they'll fight for billions more if we let them, until gravity brings the whole universe crashing together and erases everything we've built, and all of us with it. Do you think the equation will still balance while it's imperfect?"

Jamie did not hear another word, and she did not get a chance to respond, not even to say the one word she wanted to say more than anything: Goodbye. She didn't, because Logan might be waylaid for an instant, mostly out of surprise, but she was not about to be defeated by a dream. "Glowworm." She ordered, her voice flat, resolute, and direct. "Wake her." Had it not been for her tone, the AI doubtless would have informed Logan of the signal she detected, which had somehow interfaced with Jamie's mind. She would have informed Logan that it appeared to come from nowhere, and possessed a strength that should easily have melted the brain rather than communicated with it. Instead, she followed the terms of her programing… though whether she did so willingly or because she was programmed to do so, it was impossible to know. Instead of fight the signal, which could have got Jamie killed, Glowworm stimulated the right parts of her brain stem, removed the melatonin from the mew's blood, and triggered the release of a small amount of adrenaline.

Jamie woke up. For an instant, her eyes were the look of serene concentration that was often a stranger there, as she struggled to remember what she knew to be supernally important. That look became frustration as the dream began to fade, leaving her only with a tear, which formed in her first eye to open, and stayed there until she wiped it away with a paw, looking around with momentarily intense anger at Logan. "Damnit, Logan!" She screamed, surprising even herself with her words. She had never once reacted in anger to the older mew, not once in the entire time they had known each other. "Couldn't you see that dream was important!" She fought the urge to cry, a fight only anger made her win. "What was so important it couldn't wait for me to sleep a few more minutes?"

Logan did not respond with anger to her daughter's startling outburst. Her expression seemed to change little at all, in fact. "The void-ship has plotted the growth of a point of ultra-low-energy gathering above the arctic. According to its calculations, in less than a week it will breach the membrane that separates us from the true vacuum of the void. The ship is positive the false vacuum will not cause all matter in the universe to simply disintegrate. It's the Exarchs. We have to warn the Eldest. They're all coming through."

A/N: Well, that's another chapter done! I think the story's finally moving along briskly now, however briskly that might be. Review responses next chapter I think… not enough time to write them now, and I want to get this chapter posted as soon as possible. Could this mean that I've taken up my previous chapter posting schedule again? Only time will tell. As always, a review is always appreciated.


	10. and the Void Crashed Down

Chapter 9: And the Void Crashed Down

The central operating core of the Ephram, like all of the worldships, was the most massive internal section, a sphere approximately five hundred feet in diameter. But its most important feature was also the smallest: an entirely invisible pinprick of mass at the absolute center of the room. The object was the source of nearly all the power that the worldship consumed, though practically none of it came from this object directly. It was the object's gravity that did it, accelerating what would otherwise be simply a cloud of gas and dust to amazing, near cosmic speed. At nearly the speed of light, and with compression from both the inside and out, the swirling ball became a miniature version of one of the hottest and brightest objects in the universe: A quasar. Kept fed with a relatively minor mass at just the right angle (so as to orbit the object for as long as possible rather than simply be swallowed in the event-horizon), this chamber would provide enough energy to lift the fantastic mass of the worldship, to operate its shields, weapons, and most everything else aboard. The technology to harness the singularity was perhaps hundreds of thousands of years ahead of what humanity should be capable of. But humanity alone had not built this ship, and they were not alone in operating it either.

Not even an artificial intelligence could accurately regulate an object of such absurd mass and complexity. Only the most powerful psychic (or dark) types could accomplish the task, which left a very small list of candidates to operate all twenty-one of the massive ships. This, as the first-built, largest, and greatest of ships, had the greatest of operators. At the moment though, that inscrutable being seemed to be paying little attention to the myriad controls, his entire energy focused on a rapidly expanding and seemingly infinite geometric shape whose closest analogue was a four-dimensional dodecahedron. Between these two tasks, the Eldest could not so much as hover, and rested atop the operator's chair, sitting alert and seeming to have all of his senses fixed on the shape. The thing pulsed like a heartbeat in tune to the energy from the micro-quasar, feeding on much of the energy that it produced even as it grew several times larger with each pulse. The eon-old legendary would extend a paw, crushing the object down to the size of an atom, and resume growing it, thousands of little glowing filaments laced together and each one humming with a slightly different tune.

Sirens rung-out throughout the huge chamber, but all the louder in the connecting hallway, as one by one shielded sections were lowered allowing someone to pass through. "Danger! Central core is active. Danger! Central core is active. Full spectrum shielding not detected, locking yo-… override. Access granted. " That person was Bit, the mew who's technical prowess had made the melding between legendary and human technology possible. She looked human, but that appearance was a shallow illusion, the result of a Holographic Privacy Filter and not true shapechange. Any human would have to be wearing a powerful personal shield to survive in that room, as the high-energy cosmic rays and massive levels of radiation would have reduced any human (or most pokemon for that matter) to dust. For mew though, provided with a direct and plentiful source of their truest nutrition, the result was spritely energy, rapid healing, and a massive increase in psychic power that lasted so long as they remained within the field. This was how a living thing, which ordinarily grew tired and required rest, could maintain ships indefinitely. Within the core they become almost greater than living, and Bit felt herself charged with force as she stepped inside. The load of nearly two days of constant labor was lifted from her shoulders, and she moved with new vigor before the still figure whom she had always resented and a little feared. His big blue eyes did not so much as look up at her as she entered, or when he began to speak. The intense pain in whatever mental endeavor he was performing was obvious in the way his voice faltered and cracked, and the way he resorted to speaking aloud at all, meaningless mews that were doubtless far less meaningless to Bit. "Did you bring it?"

Bit nodded, snapping both clasps on the metal case she carried, and setting it atop the flat surface of the controls, speaking as she did so. "I did, sir. I followed your instructions exactly, but I don't think humans will be too happy when somebody opens the vault and finds it missing." The case clicked open, and blinding white light began to pour from every crack, so bright it was a wonder the heat of it did not turn the thing red hot. Only then did the Eldest look in her direction, staring unblinking into the most efficient energy conversion in the universe.

"The revisions I asked you to make, have you made them? Exactly as I specified."

Again Bit nodded, pulling out the contents of the case and holding it so the watching mew could see. This body was an illusion, and of course her hands did not really touch it. If they had, she could not have spoke. It was impossible to see the gem itself: The light it radiated was far brighter than the little allowed to escape from the quasar into the room, fluctuating ever-so-slightly as the quasar itself rhythmically grew brighter and dimmer. It was obvious the object had not behaved like this before, because even Bit could not take her eyes from it for a moment. Even she could no longer see the changes she had made to the stone against the light. Fortunately she could feel them, feel the way they resisted the heat and the vibrations, as the stone shook so fast it sounded faintly like a song. A distant hymn sung out the deepest secrets of the universe, much too quietly for Bit to hear. Still, the math was positively beautiful, and she listened just as closely as to the Eldest's words. "Exactly as I asked. Perfect."

Bit did not know when she spoke next. It could have been hours, or perhaps seconds. "Why did you ask me to build a regi-interface for the Omega Catalyst?"

The eldest was little prone to answering questions, Bit's least of all. But this time he did, pointing to the far end of the room where a pair of humanoid shapes were barely visible mere feet from the swirling torrent of energy. "The one on the right is open, ready to accept what you brought. Dispose of the case while you're installing it, and then I'll show you. Hurry." There was great pain in the voice, so that it was spoken more like a request than an order, but Bit obeyed anyways, taking the case in one "hand" and the still glowing stone with her, which glowed brighter and brighter as she neared the center of energy. As she did so, the radiation became more than even she could handle. First the hologram faded, its mechanisms shorted by the increasingly unregulated torrent of particles and antiparticles. Bit protected herself and the stone with a shield of bright pink energy: The case she pulled along behind her, even as it melted to a violent globule of bubbling metal, pouring noxious smoke. On the edge of the inner-field, she flung its mass upward into the spiraling dance of gas and dust, which surged brilliantly with greatly increased fuel for a moment, and as the mass disrupted the ordinarily precise flow of matter across the event horizon of the singularity. That done, Bit quickly approached the larger of the two entities, pushing against the pull of gravity from above with greater and greater energy as she neared the only being that could exist in its natural state so close, a being made from neither stone or metal. In legend, they were sometimes called the "Hands of the Gods", after the few battles in which they had intervened in the protection of one human nation or another.

Very few of these legendary golems had survived to present day, but every one had been re-awoken to service somewhere or another. These two to unfaltering service to the eldest, unmoving in his instructions since they had arrived, utterly silent. One turned as she approached, its massive body shaking the earth below her and looming high over her head. The regigigas advanced only a few paces though, before turning away, the bits and pieces of its back sliding and cracking and spurting little bursts of sand as it opened. Bit did not look too closely at this thing she had never imagined she would see, nor could she in the overwhelming light that poured from the gem she held tightly to her. She could only look away, waiting as the mechanical bits automatically connected themselves with the existing machinery, glad she had not used her actual paws to do it for how fast the machine closed, turning to return to its place as though absolutely nothing had changed. Bit flew from the center with as much speed as she could muster, coming to rest in the air a few feet from the Eldest, obviously quite relieved for the chance to put some distance between her and the singularity. As she again neared the edge of the room, Bit dissipated her shield, which popped like a similarly shaped bubble made of soap.

"The Omega Catalyst had a very specific purpose. Even humans knew it was special, but they do not know as we do. They fail to understand just how unique that object is."

Bit stared openly at the Eldest, watching this uncharacteristic behavior with as much dignity as she could muster. She watched the glowing shape continue to pulse, speaking quietly so that she would not overpower his voice. She could not even imagine the task that could completely occupy one with such vast power, almost incapacitate him. "It's from the tower, is it not? That machine ancient mew made to reach true immortality?"

"Not just _from_ that machine." The eldest continued, smiling just a fraction. Already this was the longest conversation Bit had ever had with him by far, but she saw none of the disgust that was almost always present in his eyes. It was as though, for the first time in forever, he was looking at her like a proper mew, not some mistake he had allowed to get one of his other mew into bed with him. "The Omega Catalyst _is _that machine, by far the most important and irreplaceable component. Our earliest ancestors scoured the known universe for it. They clawed apart galaxies, using machines that make the most destructive stip-mining humans have ever done seem benign. Entire planets were obliterated one by one, until they found nearly as much crystalline minerals as many times the mass of the earth, forging it in a now-dead blue giant until only the purest remained. These they brought together into the Omega Catalyst, a gemstone almost flawless."

Bit got closer, listening to this story she fully suspected was largely mythological, but… then again, after serving as long as she had on one of the worldships, could she really be sure? Extra-solar travel might be lost to the mew of today, but much of their old techniques had been lost. She could not be sure. "What is that?" She found herself asking, almost automatically, like a computer seeking and obtaining more information.

"It accepts the instructions we give it. If we err in our logic, or fall short of our understanding, it cannot tell us so, though it always knows. It carried out the near genocide of our entire species. It created the exarchs." His smile got wider. "Can you believe humans used it to power a space station? We could fashion a weapon which would burn through anything from the _outside_, send it back there in tatters and ruin. But there are too many. I have always known there would be. There were billionsof us. All far older and wiser than myself."

"So what _are_ you doing then, Eldest?" Bit was almost indignant as she spoke now, almost angry as she flew in closer, though never did she block his view of the object he was constructing of pure thought and energy harvested from the reactor. "Why didn't you tell them about this weapon they did not even know they had? Why are you composing sculpture instead of thinking of some genus way to save everyone? Most of this…" She gestured around them. "All this. It was our idea. Humans and us both, working together. But never you. You gave your blessing, but hardly lifted a hand except when you had to." Bit felt a little bad going after the Eldest when he was in such a position of weakness, but… she doubted very much she would ever be brave enough to go for him when he was at his full strength, power which could crush her skull and end her life whenever he wanted and wherever he wanted.

But the Eldest did not argue. Perhaps he did not have the strength… all that happened was his expression fell, eyes avoiding her for the first time she could ever remember. Or maybe he was just concentrating on his… whatever he was making. Bit could not remember any analogue of it in her intricate examination of history, though unless he had completely lost his mind, she had no doubt the object must serve _some _use. "I'm sorry, Bit. I'm sorry I ever doubted you could make a successful mew. I was wrong, I freely admit. Wrong about a great many things. But… I hope you'll find some little kindness for my feelings."

Bit's eyes burned as his words dragged a torrent of emotion to the surface, along with the memory of everything she had ever said to him, the hundreds if not thousands of times she had attempted to be constructive and he had dismissed her outright purely because of what she had been, not even considering her ideas. He had not approached her when the time of the year came to mate… which frankly had relieved her more than anything, but at the same time… the species had been far worse off than it was now and he wouldn't even consider a viable, healthy female, older and smarter than any of the other females who would have anything to do with them. He had barely looked at her, and seemed to hate everything she was. He had contacted her a few days ago with an urgent and absurd request, which she had followed for… well, she didn't even know really. It felt like the right thing to do? She was afraid of what he might do, or perhaps just eager to feel like she was useful to him.

"There's no time." The eldest abruptly said, cutting her off. "The prefect is coming, and it is imperative you are not discovered after stealing the Omega catalyst." He paused, as though gathering the will to say something he lacked the courage to say. "I need you to go to the arctic. There… there are those of our own blood as rotten as anything that sometimes counts itself human. Hide your thoughts and answer only to the one who saved you. The others might be with us or they might not, but she has walked where no unclean thing may go… hide with the northern Lugia on their migration. They are expecting you, and should protect you until your skills are needed."

Bit wanted to say more, tried even, but the illusion that the Eldest's power was somehow diminished by this impossible task he was undertaking appeared to be just that. Or perhaps he had simply stopped. The Eldest lifted her into the air with one paw. She was struggling now, but not from a lack of cooperating so much as it was a desire to say more. Like that apology, all this trusting her, talking about how _valuable_ she was. Bit had no doubt about that, and knew she would be sorely missed by many. In some ways she already knew what task she would be given when her brief period of hiding was complete: She knew it because the Eldest had already given a part of it to her.

Still, she had instincts, and one of them was to resist external changes to herself, resist someone simply lifting her into the air and manhandling her as the Eldest was so prone to do. "W-wait, sto-". Those words were choked off as he triggered her own shape-changing powers, or tried. She was not very good at it, so instead of simply following the instructions, Bit's ineptitude combined with her fear and she became instantly human again, a young woman with very light pink hair, green eyes, and rather modest features. She was naked, but… that concern was hardly foremost in her mind when the Eldest realized what had happened, and fully raised one of his paws, eyes narrowing in concentration. His little sculpture had definitely stopped growing now, this effort requiring his full and complete attention.

"Changing into another legendary is tricky for any of us, Bit… very easy to get wrong, and even easier to make permanent. I need you to relax… I will not make mistakes." He didn't, but that did not make the sensation easier to tolerate. It reminded her of the first time she had been human under Logan's teaching, when the other (young) mew had puppeted her powers into transforming for her. Human shapes had been something familiar and easy for her then though, a Lugia was… strange, at best. Huge, powerful, and terrifying, the father of all birds and mother of whales. Despite her age, Bit had avoided shapechange as much as possible, and what little practice she did get with it was to and from various human avatars. The fact that she was going from a human body to another body that was not her own only made things worse. As though it hadn't been hard enough adapting to having a body at all!

The first thing she felt was heavier, which said alot considering the Eldest was obviously levitating her himself. She was getting bigger, skin burning as silver fur ripped upward from her feet, speeding along her back and arms and quickly replacing her hair, lengthening and thicking far beyond what she had expected, like tiny waxy feathers. Her hands no longer felt like hands as she continued to get bigger, ten feet tall at least, and still growing, and seeming to lose joints as her bones changed to fit a new structure.'_I don't want a new body._' She concentrated on saying with her mind, as her mouth was a mess of thickening and sharpening teeth that prevented speech. _'Can't I hide some other way? Lugia will never accept me. Almost a century now and mew still haven't…'_

The eldest was hardly watching now that he had got the transformation started, but unlike the way he doubtless would have behaved in the past, he seemed concerned with Bit's mental well-being, and spoke accordingly. "I'm sorry about that… it's my fault you haven't felt more welcome. I have no doubt my successor will be a far better Eldest than I am. But I have already given you everything you need to know: Downloaded, if you will. Do not be afraid… it's almost over, and where you're going is probably one of the safest places on earth."

Either the Eldest had a different idea of what "almost over" meant, or he was lying about that last, because Bit surely didn't think what happened next was minor, as her arms stretched fully into wings, cracking painlessly as they moved back, and less painlessly as her organs squelched one after another into the widening cavity that was her gut, swelling and growing significantly in size even as Bit hovered at around twelve feet long or so, her new tail rippling with newly-formed muscle and cracking with new-growing bones, including the bony, dragonlike plates at the tip, which grew up along her back as well, remaining open for the moment to give her lungs access to the air. Her neck lengthened a little as the transformation finished, leaving a very-confused and somewhat pained Bit hovering in the center of one of the few rooms large enough to hold her. Only for a moment, though. "Goodbye, Bit. Fight well, and do not forget my instructions." Entry sirens were blaring again, and new urgency filled the Eldest's face as he concentrated on this last impossible task. Fifty meters of lead and magnesium shielding did not prevent him from opening the crackling passage through higher-dimensional space to somewhere else. Though between that and shielding both of them from the black hole's radiation, to maintaing the black-hole itself, as well as compose his sculpture… this transport was very awkward by his standards. It opened with a splitting crack and closed again a moment later, drawing Bit through before it did and leaving the Eldest very momentarily alone.

Prefect Edward was much younger than one would expect for the holder of an office that was essentially president of all humanity, representative of the entire (most important) race in the defense of earth. He looked somewhere between thirty and forty, with pale blonde hair that was kept just long enough to be dignified and just short enough that he did not too often have to maintain it. He seemed to be carrying little, though what he wore was obviously very expensive, custom-tailored and was a little reminiscent of theater with its use of contrasting whites and blacks, clean lines, and long-sleeves. He would have seemed merely like an unearthly businessman were it not for his personal guard, sixteen of which he had brought. Each one had their faces obscured along with all of their skin, dressed in powered armor that was tinted the same purple as that which protected and served legendaries aboard-ship. It was this deep shade of indigo that had earned them their name: The Praetorian Guard. There were less than three hundred of these individuals, humans (people guessed) that had given up all ties to their relatives and endured some experimental and highly disfiguring gene-therapy. The result were people stronger, faster, and better than their stock in every way, but also wholly reliant on technology to survive.

Still, technology they did not lack, and each one was dressed in the lightest (And most advanced) powered-armor exoskeletons that existed, with firstborn shielding and firstborn weapons of the highest caliber. The Prefect's guard were all volunteers, and all specially conditioned in ways that not even the legendaries had been told, remaining separate from the rest of the guard once they made the transition. The formation was perfect as they walked in, a sphere two men thick in most places, and obviously meant for show. As much as their weapons, the heaviest forces of molecular disruption that most people even in powered armor could scarcely lift, much less fire.

If Edward was trying to impress the Eldest with the display, his efforts in this respect seemed to carry little weight. The foot-tall feline did not even look up as the Prefect entered, his concentration entirely focused on the rapidly expanding sculpture of thought and raw energy. "Eldest of the Firstborn." He said, very slowly and carefully, like an experienced politician. His voice was only slightly tinged with an eastern-european accent, though it contained a great deal of disgust. His guards surrounded the Eldest, personal force-fields flickering a visible and non-visible rainbow as charged particles spun off and between them. The guards kept their weapons down, but this hardly made them look less threatening. Still the Eldest did not move. "I have sad news to deliver." There was no sadness in that face though, only triumph. "The decades of your dictatorship are over. My species will be slaves no longer. I-"

The eldest opened one of his eyes, which seemed to bore through the man's powerful shield, through his expensive clothes, and through his soul, so much so that even he was caught momentarily off-guard. Not nearly as much as he was by the Eldest's words, though. "You're here to inform me coups have taken place on all the world-ships captained by non-humans. To remind me that all our manufacturing and all our weapons and all our soldiers come from humanity. You have the cooperation of Irongate Innovations and Silph Munitions, as well as the Steel Conglomerate." The man stumbled back as if he'd just been struck, but the Eldest went on. "You've also discovered a sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence may act as a substitute for my kind in the reactors, obsoleteing the need for us entirely. That one is carrying one right now." He flicked his tail in the direction of one of the few guards holding back from the rest, his arms burdened entirely with a large ceramic case.

As much as he seemed momentarily silenced by the Eldest's words, he retained enough of his dignity not to scream something like "It's impossible!" Or "I don't know what you're talking about!". Instead he merely folded his arms. "We aren't going to be slaves anymore." He repeated. "You think we're all sheep, submitting blindly to the staff of the shepard… but no longer! There are those of us who have always known of your secret atrocities… the people you kidnapped and erased, the minds you tampered with, and worst of all, guiding human affairs like you had any right to interfere. You've acted like gods, and now that we have understanding we will not submit. We fight all our enemies on our own terms, and one of them is you." He moved more rapidly than any human should have been able to move then, drawing something from his jacket and lunging at the eldest, who seemed as though he was about to be caught off-guard.

He wasn't. The prefect's entire body froze, the blade clutched in both hands a mere inch from the Eldest's chest, the alien green metal shimmering in its own light. Thirteen weapons raised in mechanical unison, and fired a short few nanoseconds later, exploding the control panel the Eldest was resting on and sending shards of metal and plastic in all direction, bounding harmlessly off shields on all sides. The ancient mew had not departed, however… he had merely moved behind his sculpture, continuing to build it as though nothing had changed. His face grew all the more impatient, fearful even, as one who was well and truly out of time. The object was growing more rapidly than ever now, though it rippled with weapons fire. Again the entropic rifles fell short of their targets, though the stone behind where the Eldest had been standing took several hits, bits and pieces dissolving in a splattering of misapplied energy. This time the mew was on the far right of the room, continuing to build his creation of light and thought and seeming to struggle even to lift himself with the effort it cost him.

"Why do you run, pokemon?" Edward asked, his voice scathing. "Where's your world-shaking power now?" The guards took another few shots, every one of which fell far short. "You won't even face a handful of humans?" Edward pulled something from his belt, depressing the key that caused the masterball to grow to its full size in his hand before throwing it.

"Regi-GIGAS!" The ball crumbled to dust in mid-flight, rising slowly in a fine powder to join the matter already twisting and coiling together in the central reactor. The two stone pokemon standing near the central core had looked like silent statues until then, but they were still no longer, rushing forward with remarkable speed and slamming into the Praetorians. It spoke wonders for their reaction time that they gathered together into formation as the massive pokemon hit, surrounding their charge and making a slow, calm retreat of a few paces even as the first three in their line were practically turned to jelly. The pokemon screamed, held back by their energy-shields for only a moment, before crushing them and the armored forms beneath in one smooth blow. The armor cracked like eggshells, bits of bone and flesh and black ichor dribbling slowly from the sides and seams.

The mew turned away from the bloodshed, muttering now with each rapid gesture, though his words seemed far more akin to a programming language than anything one might ordinarily speak, and it was anyone's guess who he was communicating with.

Not that the Praetorians cared. With three of their number decimated, they turned their weapons and fired on the two regis. At first there was no effect whatever, energy spreading evenly along their exterior surfaces without so much as denting them. The next few guards they struck, on the other hand, went soaring through the air, slamming into stone walls on contrails of fire or electricity. The guards faced death fearlessly, attacking with all their strength and dying without exclamation, without a word or a sound other than the squelching of their various internal fluids.

The pokemon might even have won were it not for the Eldest himself. They struggled to protect him, fighting on either side and deflecting or absorbing blow after blow and shot after shot. But the technology of their enemies was far from what it had been thirty years ago. The mew had been extremely liberal with their technological knowledge, and more of it had been poured into the weapons and armor of these soldiers than any others. With the Eldest's help they would have been decimated, but without it these numbers in quarters so close, where more powerful attacks might damage the technology containing the singularity and put the entire ship at risk…

They could not survive it all. The Praetorians fought without fear, one flowing force that swept over the rocks that moved like men. The first was easy. Though each blow cost the guard a life (sometimes two), their weapons did take their toll on whatever the gollum was made from, and enough began to crack it, splintering the pokemon with their force until it could survive no more, and crumbled to powder. The other seemed entirely impervious to their shots, though each one pushed it a few feet backward. The guard used this fact, focusing fire like a computer and driving it back until they could push it into the shaft running straight through the entire world-ship, the central channel where dusty air was drawn up to fuel the singularity. A few careful bursts from the three guards who were left by then sent the Eldest's last protector tumbling down into the night.

The ancient mew seemed to not even be watching the battle, even as men died in scores around him and their remains were drawn up into the air, before being burned away by the high-neutron plasma orbiting rapidly around the singularity. The few that remained fired several times at the Eldest, each time ineffectively, but this time more from luck and wearyness than anything else. One of them was limping, one had a right arm torn clean off, thick black blood and grease dribbling down the place where its arm should've been. "Wait! If you just kill him, we've failed." Edward called, casually walking up to where the Eldest rested, eyes rolled back in his head as the sculpture rapidly grew a skin of twisting light. He did not react as the uninjured Prefect approached him, listening to the faint whispers in the pokemon's native tongue. Edward could not understand it, but he did not stop to listen for very long. He was practically standing over the Eldest now, the mew perched precariously on a small patch of stone that hadn't been damaged by the weapons fire, drawing his knife again, running a thumb along the blade. The blade was polished like onyx, but it did not reflect the seething energy of the quasar far above. The only thing that shone in its surface was the singularity, surrounded by a hundred hungry shapes that barely resembled pokemon.

Edward lowered one hand experimentally near the Eldest's back, the one without the dagger. He did not react. "I dedicate this death…" He began, whispering. Almost as though he were speaking with the blade. "to Darkrai." His other hand slammed down into the ancient pokemon's neck, just as somewhere far overhead, lightning streaked across the sky, impacting the ship in one of the metallic rods put there for that purpose and dissipating harmlessly. The sphere of light shimmered for a minute, before abruptly vanishing, gone with the thunderclap of an outgoing teleport. For one impossible instant the Prefect's eyes glazed over, as his mind was drawn along the lines of his murder to that place in the fathomless infinities he had invoked. His eyes filled with horror as he realized his mistake, watching with some twisted reflection of guilt as this necrotic invader traveled along his mentor's weapon and stormed the gates of his silent masters. The light of the quasar twisted and spiraled downward into the knife, so bright Edward let go, screaming and covering his eyes as he stumbled back. "Seal off the core!" He ordered, still covering his blind eyes with both hands, as he stumbled towards the exit. "Tell engineering to prepare a full plasma-flush of the deck, and…" One of the more intact guards twisted him gently in the direction of the exit. "Get me to the damn sick-bay!" Edward staggered from the chamber, leaving his foe impaled with the unearthly dagger. The light of a thousand stars poured into the weapon, a rushing ever-quickening torrent that never illuminated the blade, even as the body beneath it charred and burned, and the worldship began to sink slightly for want of power.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Izzy squirmed as she awoke, whimpering at the pressure of fabric all around her, and the heat it had produced. The feline tried to move as a human might, pushing herself upright with her forepaws. All this accomplished was rustling the thin fabric she was being held in. A few seconds later and the cloth opened somewhere above her, and moonlight shone in along with Alvin's somewhat pained face.

"You alright in there?" The voice sounded different to Izzy, as though her ears were sensitive to different frequencies of sound. His face was exactly as she remembered and yet it wasn't, because she could see straight through his body now. Izzy tried not to look away, as through the skin and bones and blood vessels she saw something far more akin to herself than any human form should afford. At the same time, she could not ignore her instincts completely, and there was something inherently frightening about a human being. So she twisted away, so violently that Alvin's arms were forced away, the blanket dropped, and Izzy found herself falling… for half a second, catching herself easily in mid-air, so confidently that she did a little spin around Alvin before facing him again, positively bouncing with energy. "Well. I guess I don't need to ask if you're healthy after all." He grinned mischievously, before snapping his arm quickly down, throwing a pinecone at her as hard as he could. It wasn't even close. One moment she was hovering there in the air helpless, the next she was surrounded with blazing pink, and the pinecone shattered as though it had been throw against concrete.

Izzy stuck her tongue out, dropping low to the ground and taunting him, shaking her tail at him for a few seconds. Everything seemed so… funny. Even the hideous blotches quivering towards them from all directions. They were no threat to her, not anymore. If anything, it was her duty to stay and deal with them… a duty she knew she would ignore in favor of her much more important responsibility: Protecting Alvin. She tried to speak and found she could only mew, so quickly resorted to thoughts instead. She had experience enough receiving telepathic impressions: Ophelia had enough to say and had always been eager to say it. But until now, she had never been the sender. It was a nearly indescribable feeling… like pressing herself to some invisible, impossible membrane and whispering into it so loud it shook the world. '_That wasn't very nice. What if I hadn't been ready? It could've really hurt!' _Izzy scanned the area around her for a pinecone of her own, without ever taking her eyes from Alvin. ESP seemed to come as easy to her as the flying, and with it she found something suitable, and wrapped invisible hands around it, flinging it at Alvin with at least as much force as he had used.

The kid had no defense, raising his arms too late as it struck his chest, and whimpering as it did, collapsing to his knees. "No fair, Izzy! I couldn't block that if I wanted to… that's what you're here to do, remember? You have to protect both of us until I've decided what I'm going to be."

'_Here's an idea.' _Izzy landed on one of his shoulders. _'If it's that simple, why don't you be an… me.'_

"A mew?" Alvin reached over, stroking the cat, who arched her back and began to purr involuntarily.

'_Yeah.' _Her words came a little slower while she was being petted, but… she seemed to realize that, lifting off of Alvin's shoulder and glaring at the hand that had been stroking her. _'As an insider, I can confirm that it's_…' She lifted meters into the sky, vanishing through the trees… only to descend rapidly towards him, stopping dead in the air and giggling. _'Alot like that. And if you're afraid I can't defend us… just wait until you see all the attacks I know now.'_

She seemed about to do just that, and Alvin put both of his hands up, eyes widening a little. "Let's not do that just now, Izzy. I trust you… and I'm sure that it will be much more impressive when you use it on someone who is actually trying to hurt us." That took a little wind out of her. The somewhat disappointed expression formed on her face with childlike speed, and Alvin thought quickly, trying to remember his few years of babysitting experience decades and decades buried in his memory. "Ophelia's resting just over there! She's been watching you since you fell asleep… I bet she'd love to hear those cute noises you make when you open your mouth."

As it turned out, she did. Izzy had communicated with Ophelia (and most pokemon for that matter) as a matter of intuition, but when the Kadabra actually opened her mouth, and she could differentiate between specific _words_, Izzy had to do another series of excited loops through the air. _I guess flying is how I express my emotions now?_ She thought, even as she landed on a stump beside the larger pokemon, listening as the kadabra spoke somewhat scathingly. "Isabellea should remember where we are." She said, eyes like a disapproving parent down at the feline. "And how close we are to danger. I want to play with you, but you taught me better… you need to get onto the ship before it gets too far away, and I need to…" She looked down helplessly. "I don't know exactly. Do you want me to go with you? I could, but… I don't think you need me anymore.

"Alvin doesn't need me either." Sparks cut in, emerging from a nearby bush with a somewhat sheepish expression, standing about a foot from the mew. "I want to keep going with him, but having to keep me safe just makes things harder for him." He looked directly at Ophelia. "Could I go with you? You're smart enough that I don't think you would try and eat me, and I know you're fast enough to get away from the… monsters." A shiver then, as though they all knew what the monsters were. They did.

Izzy ignored the pichu… or more accurately, responded to him too with the same words she spoke to Ophelia. "I don't want to leave you behind just because I don't need you to get around anymore." She said, her face as sincere as a young feline could look. "You're my friend! We grew up together, remember? Just like…" She looked over at Sparks. "I'm sure Alvin raised you too. You two seemed so close…"

Alvin smiled faintly from where he watched, leaning on a nearby tree just close enough that the speaking pokemon didn't seem to care he was listening. It was difficult to guess what was being said just using their tone and what Sparks was saying, but… not impossible. "We were" Sparks was saying. "He used some of his own pichu genes and some of Desumo's… that was his old pikachu… to make me in a labratory…" He looked up, folding his arms knowingly. "You know… one of those bright bad-smelling places with all the shiny stuff on tables… But his experiment's over. Alvin wanted to know if pokemon could be as smart as people, and I think he knows now. Plus… don't tell him, but…" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I don't think he cares about that experiment anymore, not now that there's a whole world to save and everything… so that's why I want to go with you! I don't care where you put me, so long as its safe. Pokemon must have their own safe-places, right? Like… the Regis. Maybe we could find some of them… I remember learning once that they protect wild pokemon when they can."

Ophelia shrugged. "I suppose they do." She looked back at her master. "Well, Izzy? Do you think we should come with you or not?"

Pause as the mew considered. She hated to admit it, but the honest truth was that their pokemon _would_ just slow them down. Alvin had abilities beyond any of the knowledge she had been fed from beyond space, and he had the plan… though he hadn't told her what that was yet, and she hadn't asked. Subconsciously… without meaning to… Izzy found herself doing what many mew did when there was a difficult decision to be made: Ask for advice. She thought louder, reaching out for the others of her species. The result was immediate, pouring into her mind and rending her unprepared consciousness almost paralyzed by the rush of thoughts, which were as much _about _her as they were to her. They sounded different, but she was so new at this she had no way to tell them apart. She was lucky she could even catch all the words as they all poured into her head.

'_Newcomer is thinking. Where is she? Somewhere in Kanto, a few more seconds and we should be able to triangulate her. You feel her David? I do. Where do you come from, child?' _The voices did not wait for her to recover enough to answer, their conversation went on. '_How could we not have noticed her this long? You think it's one of Logan's? No, I would recognize them. Bit maybe?' _The first voice again, the loudest. '_It isn't anyone we know. Maybe she's related to why the Eldest went quiet somehow.' _Then someone else asked_. 'What's your name, newcomer?'_

This time she did answer, a great struggle against the second-long blast of conversation. '_Isabella Irongate.'_ She said, and before they could interrupt her again. '_I wasn't like this until just now, but now I am. I didn't realize you kept in contact at such… range…'_ Because she didn't just sense their thoughts. She sensed their bodies too, a little. One of them was sitting in a huge room with lots of computers, one was resting on the top of a tree, one of them was watching a city from a skyscraper, one stood beside a tall grey pokemon and listened as he talked with words Izzy couldn't make out. Realizing the pokemon were still staring expectantly, she hastily said. "Hold on. I'm talking with the other legendaries. They just found me."

'_Have you seen Terah, Isabellea Irongate?' _That was the louder voice again. She was getting better at this. Though it still wasn't easy. All those female voices, many of them close to the same age. How was she supposed to tell the difference when what they said was so similar? '_He is the most important person alive, and nobody can find him. Rachel is also missing. It isn't unusual for the Eldest to leave without telling us. Not anymore it isn't. I still think he must have gone to take Rachel's place in the Ephriam's core. Then what happened to Rachel?' _The discussion went on, but Izzy wouldn't remain connected with it any longer. It was too confusing, and frankly some of the voices made her more than a little uncomfortable. Whatever they were talking about sounded very important, but it also sounded mostly unrelated with what she and Alvin were doing. What… was that anyways? Awkwardly, she looked back up at the pokemon, and forced the answer she knew to be the truth to squeak out her mouth. "Well, I… I really appreciate everything you've done for me Ophelia, but Alvin seems to think that the Worldship is going to be very dangerous. I agree… even the legendaries seem worried about something, though I can't figure out what. I think… the safest place for you two is somewhere far away… like the island!" Her eyes fixed on Ophelia, and she lifted up from where she stood. "My father's an asshole, but it's such a big island. He won't care about pokemon so long as they stay out of his way. All those defenses he installed, all those mercenaries… and company contractors. If the worldships aren't safe, the island is… and you'd be able to get there easier than anywhere else since we both grew up there!" She was smiling now as she thought about it. "That way I will be able to find you when this is all over!"

Ophelia seemed satisfied with this idea. "Safer than looking for a legendary that might not help us anyways… at least your father's soldiers will fight for us while they protect him. But… no more time to talk, I think. Do you feel them?" Izzy did. The infested had come, with as many void-spawn as there were, closing in slowly in small numbers from all around.

"We can fight." Alvin said abruptly, clutching a fallen tree-limb in two gangly arms. "But I can't fight like you, and we have places we have to be. People to meet. We have to get onto the ship that is trying to kill us." He dropped the stick, tossing Sparks's ultraball to Ophelia, who caught it with her psychic power and held it in the air in front of her, obviously understanding. Alvin dropped to his knees, catching Sparks as the pichu collided with him, bleeding electricity and crying. The energy surged along his body, but he restrained the muscle contractions, and almost all of it was channeled harmlessly into the ground. Alvin had a great deal of experience with being shocked after all, and this time it was obviously not really meant to harm him. Just unrestrained instinct as Sparks cried.

"I might not ever see you again!" He was saying. "First Des, then Tom, and now you might come next!" He whimpered. Alvin just stroked the Pichu's back, trying to get him to calm down. It didn't really work. "You really think you'll make it?"

Alvin did not have to pause long to think, shaking his head sadly. "The me you know died when we first went into the reverse-world." The pichu's crying just got louder, but for once Alvin did not shrink from it. This might be the last time he saw Sparks, the last thing he was going to do was lie to him. "You put the pieces back together brilliantly, Sparks, otherwise I would have died completely. But I haven't. But… if any part of me makes it, it won't be the human parts. If I cling to those, I'm letting everyone down." The pichu looked confused, and so did Izzy. He didn't elaborate. "Keep yourself safe, Sparks. Evolve, find a female as smart as you are, and teach your pichu about Des, and about Erica. I designed you, remember? So in a way… so long as you're alive, you'll carry me along with you." He stood up, dropping Sparks down onto the ground near Ophelia. He then reached out, and scooped Izzy into his arms. They vanished with a bang, leaving Sparks staring tearfully upward, before Ophelia walked up to him, took one of his forepaws silently, and they vanished too.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As a matter of safety worldship shields were always active, save for small gaps opened for air-traffic. This was easy, since producing them took little energy when they weren't actually blocking anything. Through principals even Logan did not understand, their own kind (along with most other legendaries), so long as they were completely free of the soulphage, could move through the shield like it wasn't there. That was precisely what she did, arriving loudly and with a rush of air that someone more adept at long-range teleportation would've scoffed at. Still, she was in a hurry. Logan had no time for needlessly complex pressure calculation with a matter so urgent in her mind. Jamie and Miya were there beside her, eyes dutifully closed against the otherworldly rigors that came with so blatantly violating what most people took for physical laws.

The Green Room, so named for the verdant carpet of plant-life that made it look more like a park, was one of the few places on Ephraim that no human had ever seen. The only entrance was from the arboretum on the top of the ship, and none of the wild pokemon there would allow anyone who even smelled human near it. The same was not true of _former _humans though. All four occupants of the ovular chamber had once counted themselves that way.

As it was, the only other occupant of the room was doing little more than running in worried circles around a holographic display set into the floor, occasionally glancing up at the data projected there and squeaking faintly. "It's sinking, it's sinking! Ground is only ten miles now… reactors can't keep up…" It looked more like a little potted topiary was scrabbling along, propping itself up on its hindpaws so that it could see the screen, then landing on all four paws and darting to another console, repeat. She looked up as Logan appeared, recognizing her either by appearance, or by the company she kept. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Arceus. There really is a god." The green-and-white hedgehog darted over to where they hung in the air, jumping up and down until they floated down to her, Jamie far before any of the others. "Down here! Everything's going to hell… thank god somebody showed up who might actually know what they're doing!"

"Hi Marilyn!" Jamie said, landing on the ground in front of the Shaymin and stretching out onto four paws, if just for a second. "Why are all those alarms going off?"

The grass-type looked somewhat impatient. "Oh gee, I dunno. Maybe because Ephraim is FALLING! Dunno, that might have something to do with it."

Jamie's face fell, as it always did when faced with Marilyn's sarcasm, but Logan didn't chastise the shaymin about it this time. Instead she asked: "How long has it been falling? If something happened to Rachel, wouldn't the Eldest have stepped in? I'm sure he could lift this ship by himself, without needing to use any of its systems."

"That's the worst part!" The Shaymin called upward, standing on her hindpaws as Logan landed, trying to seem as imposing as possible. It hardly worked, and after a few unsteady seconds, she fell back onto her forepaws, doing her best not to show embarrassment. "Eight hours ago, the reactor safeties shut down the singularity, so _he _went in to see what was wrong. _He _sent a message and told us that Rachel was missing, and he hadn't left the reactor until suddenly the ship started going crazy!" She was positively bouncing up and down now. "The failsafes aren't responding, but there aren't any abnormal readings from outside the core… Almost no energy readings at all! It's pulling energy from the rest of the ship now, even the emergency fusion reactors can't keep up… everybody's scrambling to figure out what to do, and most people don't even know what's going on, but… all they'd have to do is look outside!" She whimpered. "I want to help, but I can't do anything like this, and the Gracideas are out there!" She gestured to the door, closed as it was. "The pokemon don't know what's going on, they want to know what to do, but I can't face them all! They're so big, and so mad right now… they might eat me!"

Logan sighed, floating back into the air and lifting something that looked like a thin metallic name-badge from a rack. "What about Bit? She could handle the singularity, I'm sure of it…" With a click, the thing activated, and Logan's mew-body vanished, replaced by a slowly solidifying grid-work shaped like a human female. After a few seconds the textures were superimposed on the grid, and Logan clipped it to the pocket of her blue jumpsuit, adjusting the physical characteristics of the projection until she reached something she was happy with.

Marilyn's answer hardly reassured. "She went into the core about ten minutes before everything went bad… please Logan, you have to help!"

"Alright… Jamie, go with Marilyn, get her some of that flower and then see if you two can't sever the power-transfer to the lower levels from the outside of the ship. The anti-gravity on the upper decks should be able to hold our position at least, and if we keep the power away from the core, I don't see how it could be drained. Then you report straight back to me, alright little missy?" She glowered down at Jamie. "If you let yourself get hurt, I swear I'll make you eat emergency rations for a week. Now… get going, you two. Dealing with scared pokemon is the easier job, I promise." She took another nametag off of the charging rack, looking down at Miya, before the words "what about me" could leave her lips. "As for you, put this on. We're going to the core."

Miya was relieved Logan had not forced her to properly change shape for this: Imitating the pressure that limbs exerted with psionic power was much easier for her than actually using _transform_. Miya obeyed, waving weakly to her sister as Jamie left beside the Shaymin. Miya wondered which one of them had been given the most difficult task. As usual, she settled on herself. Logan _always_ made her work harder. "I thought you said I was too young for the core." She said, in the vain hope she might escape from whatever her adoptive mother had in mind.

As usual, it didn't work. "You are, but the best way to learn is doing it anyway." She took Miya's hand, or seemed to. "Close your eyes." BANG! They were standing outside the entrance to the core, up to their ankles in… Miya screamed. The pathway leading directly into the core was one of the most heavily guarded on the ship, with armored emplacements and several layers of combat shield generators, and an entire contingent of part-human and fully pokemon guards. They were all dead, limbs scattered and blood everywhere. There were bullet-wounds, but the few corpses that had them had been struck in the back, as if by friendly fire. The stench was awful, but not nearly so bad as it would be. The blood was still fresh, some of it was still liquid.

"Damit!" Logan swore loudly, bending down with one of her hands extended over a corpse, feeling it with invisible senses. Her eyes went wide as she did. She moved from one corpse to another, and at each one, her expression of horror only deepened. After throughly examining the corpse of a tyranitar that had been impaled with a large chunk of machinery, she got up, taking one of Miya's hands in hers and running towards the reactor.

Miya had lost most of her self-control by then. It was all she could do to keep up with her mother, eyes closed and crying. She didn't ask what had so disturbed her mother, if not the sight of the slaughter itself. So she had no way of knowing that Logan was most frightened by the fact her own mental signature was present on all the corpses, every bit of wire or steel rebar that had been twisted to strangle and choke and impale.

Unlike her mother, who's abilities only seemed enhanced with the stress. The first door remained defiantly closed for her even after she scanned her genetic identification, she merely lifted the five-ton security door with both forepaws, eyes burning pink as she did it, ignoring the sirens that followed and pulling Miya along under it before it could slam closed again. The second and third doors were easier to bypass, lifting them and slamming them and moving right through. The forth was the easiest of all, a simple energy shield that any legendary could pass through without being lowered, identical to that outside the station. Once through it though, both of them wished they hadn't.

The singularity itself was visible, or rather patch of non-light that it's farmost event horizon absorbed. The quasar was stretched and distended, a faint shadow of the light it usually possessed. A shadow of the brightest object in the universe was still quite bright, but Logan shielded the two of them so fast that their holograms didn't even flicker. Through the polarization they could make out the room: All the equipment melted, a constant ocean of plasma pouring in from the celling and twisting straight down into the vortex of light and energy that spun smaller and smaller until it reached the hilt of the blade, where a single jet-black gem seemed to be absorbing the entirety of the energy. The sound was almost as bad as the light on their feline ears, like the crackle of the Northern Lights magnified a thousand times and mingled with the sound of a tornado. Logan too began to cry as she saw the Eldest's body, and the blade that went entirely through his back. The body was remarkably intact, vibrantly alive save for a light scorching of his fur. Logan suspected the blade was absorbing energy so completely that she could approach the quasar without her shield, if she had the courage. She didn't.

'_Listen very closely, Miya."_ Logan wiped her eyes, speaking directly to Miya's mind so as to bypass the torrential rush of sound from all around them. _'If you get this wrong, we will both die. I'm not teaching you this time… no safety net or magic rescues.' _They were halfway across the room, and Miya began to pull away from her, making as though to run backward through the shield and flee from such responsibility. As she passed through Logan's bubble though… she did not feel the other mew extending it to protect her flight, as she usually would. Her mother normally taught through pressure, but it was pressure mitigated by the knowledge that you were always safe, really.

This time when Miya passed through the shield Logan allowed her skin to be instantly and severely sunburned from the fraction of a second of exposure, causing Miya to whimper and pull back into the shield. The holographic privacy filter shorted and fried by the high-intensity-radiation, she stared up at her mother with big, hurt eyes. _'I can't believe you… you didn't…'_

'_I can't protect you, Miya. For once I need you to protect me.' _Logan dropped her own holographic filter, which itself fried once the two felines had hovered far enough away. The larger landed on the ground just beside her fallen mate, sniffing feebly at him for a moment in a way that was obviously instinct, before collecting herself and glancing back to Miya. _'Feel that?'_ She asked very quietly, her mental voice barely a whisper. Her shield was almost totally opaque now, doing its darndest to protect them from conditions entirely hostile to life. The sound alone probably would've liquified their brains were they unprotected.

Miya shook her head, though it was impossible to keep the tiniest bit of sarcasm from her voice, even faced with something she thought was impossible: The corpse of the Eldest. Then again, perhaps it was her only defense. '_What, besides the hurricane, and my eyes going blind from all the light? No, I don't._'

Logan didn't scold her for her attitude this time. If anything, she looked that much more hurt, subdued. Like she was getting smaller by the second. Still, there was a faint glimmer of hope in her eyes as she spoke. '_Think about it like this. When the mew built their ladder to try to climb to heaven, they failed, because they were trying to go from a very simple state to a very complexly encoded one. Imagine taking a compact disk… god, you probably don't even remember those do you?' _Miya promptly interrupted that of course she remembered them, that despite how she looked she was fairly close to Logan's physical age, and so the older mew went on. _'Well imagine taking that and trying to upload it directly to the modern internet, with no knowledge of how it operated except to know it existed. How would you do it? Where would you send the files? How would such a primitive format even be processed by a server without being encapsulated first? Don't even start on actually having a service provider…'_ She trailed off, her eyes fixed on her fallen mate. Miya found herself straining for what her mother meant. What was the older mew getting at? Everything she said simply seemed to confuse her more, and have little to do with what was actually going on. But Logan had a point. '_On the other hand, how easy would it be for someone on the modern internet to take a file small enough and download it onto an old format. Sure it would be hard to find a piece of media that old, but…'_ Logan's eyes fixed on the knife for a moment, and Miya made the connection.

'_So you think the Eldest did this to himself? That… by letting himself die he was going… onto a CD?'_

Logan shook her head, smiling very faintly. _'I feel his heart beating in the dark. I think I know where all this energy is going, so much faster than a singularity could consume it. And I need to go in after him.'_

'_Don't. Don't do that, mommy!'_ Miya couldn't help herself. She pressed her body to Logan's side, trying to prevent what she thought was inevitable now. And she was almost right. _'I don't want you to die too!'_

Logan shook her head, slowly. _'That's where you come in. I don't think I need to die now that Terah has opened the way. I'll follow all this energy to him and see…'_ This next part was a lie. She knew it was completely impossible, knew it from the blood that had seeped from the wound and spread across the ground, knew it from the cold and from the silence in the brain. There was one person and one person only who might be able to save someone so far gone, might be able to repair the body and get the blood flowing. Unfortunately, that person was also the one with the knife in his neck. '_if I can pull him back. Stay close. Remember when I taught you how to make a bubble?"_

Miya nodded, shock filling her eyes. '_But I've never been able to keep a shield for more than a few seconds! All this energy…'_

'_From your perspective, a few seconds should be enough. Count to five, then pull my paw away. Start with the shield… make it outside of mine, but don't try to block the stream… you won't be able to.'_

Miya concentrated with all her might, face wrinkling and limbs shaking with the effort, possibly more than she had ever spent. Perhaps there was something to be said for teaching mechanisms like this… because with a crack, the bubble burst into being, and Logan's faded away. The older mew propped her forepaws up on the Eldest's corpse, and abruptly made contact with one paw. Her eyes lost their focus, as Miya felt her mind seem to entirely vanish from her body, heartbeat and breathing completely frozen. She shivered. '_A-alright Logan. One…"_

_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ._

_A/N: _What a freakin' chapter that was. You won't believe how many hours that took compared to my average, and the worst part was I had to cut three whole sections to make it fit within a reasonable human length for a story this size. With all of them it would have been at least 20k, and that's just absurd… like you guys are payin' me to write this stuff or somethin'. Oh gee I'd love to write this stuff full time…

All sorts of crap happing this time, and our first main FD-verse character to kick the bucket this story. Wonder how many people thought the Eldest might be dead before the war even started. How will our brave humans/pokemon survive the exarchs without the Eldest's help? I suppose we'll have to wait a week or two to find that out. Probably on the shorter side of things, since I've already got one section half written for next time (the section I was halfway through writing when I realized how insanely long this chapter was).

For those of you who simply CANNOT SURVIVE until the next chapter, there's this great little community that exists in a persistent Skype chat room that I'd like to extend an invitation to any reader. It's TEXT ONLY to participate, so no need to get sheepish/squeamish about contributing your face/voice if you're not into that. We originally got together as a casual place to discuss things transformation and pokemon related, but we've since branched off quite a bit and often get together for video gaming and discussion and such. The average age is in the low twenties, but older/younger (I'm 19 myself) people are very much welcome. Levels of participation vary, and obviously it's free and no activities are required. Just a very casual group that you can sign online/offline to at any time, people are almost always online to talk. I'd like to thank that group now for their help with EDITING, as I know my chapters would have far more problems then they do if it wasn't for their help. Several characters from this story also belong to or were inspired by people from the group. Please don't be afraid to use 's email system to drop me a request for an invite to the Skype group, I'll respond as promptly as I can.

But enough pimping the group. I skimped on review responses for a few chapters now, so it's time to man up. As usual, reviews are the reason I keep writing… actually, it's feedback from readers, but reviews are the most obvious feedback I receive. The more I hear from other people about my work, the greater the incentive to keep writing.

Chapter 7

KA: That remark had nothing to do with making humans look bad. It was actually my way of nodding towards some popular ideas about the future of the universe without having to confirm or deny any of them. I enjoy science, but this story isn't about it, and I don't want to go into pages and pages of it explaining what my theories are. I'd rather just acknowledge that similar theories are held in the pokemon world and move on.

I don't think Logan is going to be particularly vocal unless she has to be. Because really even as someone who got the information directly and not a reader who's told much in exposition, I don't think she well understands everything she was told. You take it as meaning an afterlife. Maybe that's what it means, maybe not. But I don't think it's fair either way to blame belief of an afterlife for the atrocities committed by early world religions. I think we both know that's a scapegoat, and a pretty weak one at that. Literally /anything/ can be used to justify evil if you're persuasive enough, and that just happened to be the flavor of the week back in olden times for what was often a political dispute, with religious differences serving more than anything to simply illustrate the divide. Logan will have to think hard about how much to tell the other mew, but I don't think the previous consequences of religious belief (which may or may not have even happened in the pokemon world, though religion itself clearly has in various forms) Plus, this isn't nor ever will be a religion. What Logan learned inside the voidship is very different from early religion in that it's all demonstrable fact. Faith has nothing at all to do with it. With the right instruments, it can be measured, experiments repeated et-cetera. I think the only holocaust that could ever result from this knowledge is the usual way the scientific method ruthlessly murders incorrect ideas.

No, I didn't go into much detail about the "afterlife". I think if I did it would rob the story of both its focus and the dramatic weight of the concept itself. Part of death is that it's mysterious. If I just go and freakin' say what it's like, then that doesn't make for much of a story, does it?

Absolutely the voidship told them everything, those early mew, but they were a primitive tribal people then, and later… they were still a very young, very physical species. It may have told them the truth of the so-called "afterlife", which may be what the mew were really rebelling against. Maybe the thing isn't so great, like you suspect.

DPL: Yep, Glowworm! Not your favorite name, but then Jamie came up with it and not me, so you shuddup about it. Yep. I'm honestly surprised we missed the Black "clack" typo. Geez, talk about embarrassing. Unfortunately this chapter was more of a backstory chapter than one that is filled with all the eventhappenings like usual. Still, some stuff went down, battles and being blow out of the sky by a rocket, and stuff like that, so…

Kirby Oak: For all we know, the Eldest may have known lots and lots of stuff before it happened, maybe all of it. Genetic memory and all is just soooo much fun. As to what the Voidship did, it pretty much created a simulation based on its last recorded encounter with mew, but it did so synthesizing all the matter involved, and controlling all of it so that it might as well have actually been a beach, rather than just the simulated picture of one. I actually intended someone to ask the voidship about this at some point but lost track and thought it wasn't really important in the grand scheme of what was going on. I think you know already if Ion ended up being saved, though. Still, at least that girl was? So things aren't /all/ bad! But yes… the connection mew think they have to the cosmic microwave background isn't as literal as was previously thought. Their old stories say they came from it… now we know that to be very literal, as they were created by a race of beings whose success shaped it the way we know it. For all this ship is obviously a powerful device though I don't think it is capable of simply stopping the exarchs, or we would have to see if it would. Maybe it could be a serious contender for the job if it was willing to put all its resources to bear and possibly be destroyed in the endeavor… but remember it has responsibilities to those yet unborn in universes that haven't even been conceived of yet. It is not going to jeprordize itself no matter the stakes for just one universe. I never really liked Deoxys much, so I don't know if it is real, and I doubt very much that I will confirm or deny it's existence in this story. More likely than anything it will remained unmentioned, so that readers may decide for themselves how many space DNA viruses there are. Adam meeting Alvin and Izzy, though? Wouldn't that be just fancy? Maybe they'd play a part in Izzy's trainer fantasy from the next chapter somehow…

ShadowVee:

Omg a new-ish reader review, yay! And such an estute, timely, and scientific one no less. I hope you are still reading, my dear Eevee of shadow, though it seems some of the finer points of theoretical metaphysics do not see a unanimous agreement between us. I indeed see what you're saying about the lifespan of iron, though I disagree on grounds you doubtless understand very well, considering you mention them here. Proton decay is something which (as you say) has not ever been observed. As pretty and nice as all the grand unified theories for physics are, until I see evidence to the contrary I'm just gonna keep on truckin' with protons being the lightest energy baryon (and therefore never ever decaying to a lower energy state). You are completely right about the decay of Neutrons though, and this wound indeed require the intervention of the voidship (which I'm sure we can all agree it is more than equal to providing).

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised someone even understands things well enough to be able to call me on something like that, someone who is also reading a pokemon fanfiction that is sometimes about transformation. Keep on truckin', awesome dude, and I hope to see reviews from you in the future!

Chapter 8

Kirby Oak:

Yay first review! Perhaps the only review at this rate… this has got to be the weakest response I have ever got to a chapter. Still, these things happen… I've got to keep going for the sake of the story if nothing else. That's a very interesting little theory about Alvin there. If it's true, that would be perhaps the most unfortunate FD-verse TF (zombies not withstanding) on record. Or most fortunate, if your other theory turns out to be true. I think you're on the right track with both ideas, but I think I'll let the story confirm or deny stuff. Yes, Richard's sister is a pretty cool person. I think we'll get a chance to meet her in an upcoming chapter (assuming you didn't meet her in this chapter) For all your talk of my Stargate influences (which I don't think has been very true of this story) IT seems like this was all influenced by later lore of homestuck, which of course I did not know since I just recently read it all.

DPL: Yay second review! Everybody loves reviews, and everybody's name is me. You probably should have gone back and re-read the last paragraph or so of the previous story, as I imagine it would have answered all your questions about the aircraft exploding. Yes, the Worldship told them they were going to be taken in safely. Then it lied and shot them down. Hah. You're the second person begging him to kiss her and expecting her not to, and… HE DID! So screw you guys! ^^ Balls to the wall for someone who hasn't had any real romance since he was actually fifteen. Yep new characters… wanted to get some people that were important that were more on the ordinary side of things than the genuinely extraordinary people we're usually looking at.

So all and all not one of your longer reviews, but I appreciate the insight all the same. It's to you I must apologize the most, because… it seems with your english skills as they are, you're doomed to read out this story in a state of confusion. It was all well and good back in the days of MM, but now we're dealing with complex metaphysical crap from day 1 and I'm not surprised you're often unsure of what's going on. I would be.

KragmoorBithen: This was perhaps the most flattering review I have ever received on any of my stories ever. It really made my day the day I got it to have something so unrepentantly positive about my work, which I often don't think of too positively (if you always have low expectations than all your surprises are pleasant ones, after all!) I sure wish that your hypothesis A was true, though. I'd really love to make the mainstream with my work, and hopefully someday I will. C is completely correct, and perhaps the most all-encompassing hypothesis you provided, though B is sorta true (Writing Minor actually, CS Major). None of this is for a project or anything… just something to do in my free time. Honestly I have no idea why I pour so many hours and so much effort into fanfiction… quite alot of it if I examine my whole history. Guess I just can't help myself. As for what Alvin is… I've been dropping my little hints here and there, and I'm sure your subconscious is getting them. When it all comes together, I have no doubt many readers will go "Oooooooooohhhhhhhhh" and remember all the signs they've seen of what was happening.

Link759: Yep, that sure is alot of questions. I mean sure I could answer them all now, the ones that have answers, but I think you'll be much happier to find them out via reading.

So that's it. Another chapter done. Until next time, Fragmented Disillusionment signing off!


	11. March of the Damned

Chapter 10: "March of the Damned"

She was a falling star, burning brighter than fusion in a place that had never known light. Down she fell from distant heaven, the true substance of its nature only a memory. She closed her eyes against the darkness, but the dark shone like a spotlight through her mind and body, a void so empty it brimmed with infinite quantum eventualities, making and unmaking themselves in nanoseconds and in eons. There were no stars, no true space. No dawn, and no day. She saw things no mind could see, shapes no sane person could remember: and so she did not remember, continuing on oblivious to her destination or even her nature. She had no life, no substance, and she knew only pain.

At first. After a century in the dark, floating endlessly in gibbering madness among things that had never known light, Logan saw a star, dull red echoing faintly through the void… but a star nonetheless. Something physical, something that followed laws she was familiar with… suddenly she knew again. She remembered her name, and more importantly, she realized why she was still 'alive'. She was no twisted parody like the endless billions of non-life she passed, and who gathered around her. Thousands battered her every second, and without fail they were simply torn apart far before they could reach her, stripped of what passed for their existence by the fantastic extradimentional energy that her mind commanded. Fear faded as she listened to the faint glubs and gibbers that came from the seemingly infinite beings, most of which were too faint for her even to see. Were these the great exarchs? The beings whose almighty grip was closing ever tighter around her home space? The irony would have made her smile if she had a body to smile with: They weren't so dangerous in her home space because of how strong they were, it was their weakness that made them dangerous. Even here they were barely wisps, whispers, and she wondered how many billions or trillions needed to act together to have any weight. For nearly a century already she had floated mad in the void, and how many thousands had burned awash on the brilliance of a mind that was whole and healthy and alive?

"_two…"_

Logan spent another century remembering what she looked like, and building a body for herself from memories she suspected she would not need, hammering skin and eyes and fur and leaving the insides to hold her mind: A remarkably accurate simulation of the feline she usually looked to be. Her fur burned nearly as bright as the star she had determined to find, but it was that way she traveled, moving slowly at first so that those pitiable things that followed her in greater and greater numbers would have a chance to get out of her way. She tried not to feel pain for the ones that were too feeble to move, or whose logic had twisted so much that they could not make the critical connections necessary to realize they were about to die. She mostly succeeded at it, using the image of her dead mate to fuel her pathway through the nothing that surrounded her. Perhaps it was merciful.

The star was an impossible distance away, but with no other sources of light and an infinite length of time to get there… what was time, anyways? But she had known it wouldn't extend here in any way she understood. It was all she could do to continue onward, a falling star that fell ever faster and burned a swathe of brief brilliance across the void. Then she came to the star, a faint red-dwarf that shone with something like 7% the light of her sun, and 1/10000th the energy. What she did not expect was the earth and moon, seeming much larger compared to a star that was only a few hundred times their better, orbiting very close to the pale body in a sky otherwise without stars. The blackness of the space as often made from nothing as it was the cracked and broken fragments of intelligent minds. Logan paused a moment to reflect on the familiar shape of her planet below, though she knew full well this could not be the same place. It had a fresh look to it, an artificial look. Like something built by a careful craftsman… a familiar craftsman.

'_three…'_

"Much is written of your arrival." Something spoke next to her, the first voice she had heard that was loud enough for her intact mind to make out. "We saw you with our telescopes… you will join me? Follow… I take you to him." The speaker looked like a mew, but… also it did not. She was disfigured and bulbus, like a mew built by someone who had heard them described but never actually seen one. The measurements were subtly _off_, and made Logan uncomfortable just to look. Still, she could look and retain the memory of looking in the moments after doing it, so that spoke wonders for this _thing_. It was closer than any of the deep-space beings had dared to go, and though its shape seemed a transparent outline to Logan, it was able to abide her presence. The only truly living thing that had ever existed here nodded, and followed behind this guide down past uncountable legions of… soldiers? Guardians? None of them seemed as _real_ as her guide, though some came close. Many more were only faintly brighter than the ghosts of the deep, and stayed well away from Logan as well as the contrail she left behind her, a trail of logic and reason and billions of quantum wave-functions collapsed whose consistency would not permit them to exist.

The rush of air on Logan's fur felt fantastic, and it was at that moment she realized that she needed to breathe, and breathe she did, enough to count the difference for the unmeasurable time she had spent in space that had no laws. This planet was, after all, more than objects. Whoever had built it, and the sun that orbited around it, had taken the laws of the world these objects came from and built those too, using principals Logan could not imagine. What she _did_ know was who had made this place. There was only one who really knew whether light was a particle or a wave, and knew if gravity was really caused by a mostly stationary grid of undetectable particles called gravitons. As Logan descended with her mostly-real guide, she saw homes more real than their occupants, huge castles built into trees, and vast shining cities populated with ghosts learning again what it was like to exist.

Logan knew they were nearing their destination as she saw the assemblies of the faintest ghosts, those her guide was taking great care to steer her around, and always avoided her if she was not fast enough to avoid them. It seemed the line circled the planet, bodies so faint in this "real" light that she could not make out shapes (and for that she was grateful), only the dimmest suggestion of thought. It felt like knowing of the wind by watching objects move around it: Logan could not see the wind, but she could see the faintest ripples in the space the wind occupied, and they avoided them. Logan flew on her own power, reveling at the familiar and yet eternally distant memory of what it was like to fight gravity. Her joy only made her burn brighter, causing the invisible multitudes to avoid her at ever-increasing distance, as even her guide shrunk away from how very _real_ she was.

The structure was palatial, built of vast stone blocks that melded with the forest of gigantic trees all around it, verdant growth that spilled over the structures and only made them seem more beautiful. She flew over huge fountains and pools, as well as massive geometric gardens tended by ghosts. Every one moved diligently, though Logan had to admit, they seemed more like machines than people. Her guide had not spoken with her again, and she wondered just how much effort speaking with her at all must have cost it. They had reached a massive archway now, its roof glittering with glass in fantastically intricate array, dull red sunlight seeming to her like the entire planet was in perpetual dusk. Or maybe it was better to think of the place as existing in unending dawn light: sunrise on a life these creatures had long had taken from them.

She saw him by the light of the fountain, his shape familiar in this place that tried so hard to be her home, but mostly failed. He looked utterly familiar to her in the light of the quasar, save perhaps he looked somewhat younger, newer. He did not shine the way she did, but he didn't look much like a ghost, either. The Eldest was as real as the ground on which he stood, in a building whose vast ceiling caused the crackle of brilliant white energy from the geyser. A massive metal basin had been built around it, engraved with the finest and most intricate craftsmanship. As she watched, the energy fell back like water, sloshing along the edges of the fountain, and spilling down a thousand intricate grooves cut into the base to drain to areas she could only guess, while the time this took meant the fountain always seemed full. The mew at the edge of the fountain dipped a nearly flat stone bowl inside, drinking deeply of the waterlike substance that collected there, and seeming to glow as Logan did for a very short time, as though well and truly remembering what it was like to be alive, before the stresses of a place that was entirely unreal wore away at him, and the Eldest became once again as the others here, although lacking the disturbing near-reality of some of the others around the palace (including her guide). Still, Logan felt with a pang that only his recent arrival and the near-infinite font of energy and life that poured into his plaice was keeping him this way, and making all of this possible. How real would this earth-clone look when the illusions of its stones faded, and all the light from its fake star died?

'_Four...'_

"I thought you would come." He said, setting down the bowl beside the font and looking to the one who was still alive. "I had hoped you would just trust me… would not have to see any of this. See me like this. But you never did just trust me, did you?" Logan did not hesitate. She crossed the room in an instant, rubbing up against the Eldest and embracing him with all the passion her tearful trip through the void had dredged up from inside her. She didn't say anything for some time.

"How did this happen, Adrian?" She finally asked, ignoring what she thought to be people watching them. She didn't care what anybody thought of her just now. "How did you die?"

He seemed happier than she had ever seen him, in an ironic, defeated sort of way. She could understand that, given their location. She had a thousand questions about it, but for now only the first mattered. It took the Eldest some time to speak, as though unsure of exactly what he wanted to say. When he did speak, it was more reserved than she remembered him. Wiser? It was impossible to say. "Why is the better question, Logan. How doesn't matter, except that it needed to happen."

Logan swore loudly, frustration growing as her body dimmed. "Like hell it did! Nothing could've killed you without you letting it! Didn't you think we would need you? Your skills, your knowledge… we've got a war we'll have to fight without you now!"

The Eldest seemed hurt, thought it was obvious to her he was holding a great deal back, restraining himself. She got the sense… for the first time she could remember… that the Eldest _wanted_ to tell her more, but couldn't. She found her mind briefly considering what he had endured in the time since arriving here. He had obviously known what would happen to him… perhaps that was why he had arranged to be murdered in the Core. All that energy coming down with him, growing exponentially greater the same way first world money seemed greatly magnified when brought where living expenses were so much lower. Had he tumbled down here in the torrent of quazar-fire, and hammered it into a planet, a star? She somehow knew nothing that she was seeing was native here: If anything, it was anema to the realm, and only made possible because of the Eldest's knowledge and the ample power he had brought. In her travel across the black, she remembered one thing plainly: truth was a flexible thing. For the "people" that had become the realm's inhabitants, she supposed this was required and natural for them. Each thing that lived within the void had adapted to literally different universes. Here so close to a quantum energy state, they might as well have. "That war isn't for you to fight." The Eldest eventually said. "I'm surprised you have not figured that out by now. It wasn't for you, and it wasn't for me. Because both of us understand the futility of that war. Allow our attackers to define the terms and they're bound to meet us on a field where they have the advantage. That's exactly what they will do. All our ships and all our technology will break like toys then. That's why I came here. Because of you."

For once Logan did not have to ask. "I didn't know how I was going to establish sympathy with this place… I thought that maybe I would have to find a way down here myself when I was nearly ready, let Miya finish what was left. But how… how could you possibly know what I was planning? I was so deep down when I figured that out, wrapped in that shell our ancestors made to keep the voidship from escaping. Stupid! As if some glass could keep that thing down there. Just because it blocked their powers… for all their wisdom, they were really ignorant!"

The eldest chuckled. "Not unlike the people of any age. Even you assume your discovery continued unknown, as though anything any of my kind knew could remain apart from me. That order we started all those thousands of years ago, entrusting our knowledge to humans: The only way to keep it away from us was to ensure that none of us knew it. My death means I won't pass the memory on to whatever Eldest follows me. It's imperative it not be passed on, so… I'm afraid you won't be able to ever take my place anymore. But I've known that would happen. You're much too curious." He sighed, with a familiar 'I'm just too old for this anymore' expression, though for once it seemed almost ironic. He was, after all, already dead.

Logan's anger was bubbling back, more focused than it had been. "You could have warned me! Told me what you were planning. Letting yourself get killed like that, when we have so much left to do…" She was human now, without the transition to and from she would have made in the real world. Here bodies really were little more than illusory. She still wore her dress-uniform, laden with various awards and ribbons she hadn't even thought about creating: they simply were. Perhaps Logan thinking about the Eldest as a tall, dark-haired man was what made him look that way as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and cried into his chest, whimpering very quietly. "I don't want you to die."

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, speaking very gently. "Too late. There's nothing you can do, and staying here isn't an option." He held her for a moment, until she had done all her crying, and turned away, walking over to a huge glass window and looking out and down at the concourse of… she quickly turned away, looking back at him.

"A-alright, Eldest. I get that you brought the energy here to keep you from losing your mind… I'm sure you arranged for whoever killed you to get their hands on that blade. I can't imagine what you must have done for Darkrai to convince him to help you… but what I don't understand is why all this?" She gestured around her wildly. Her eyes were still red, but the tears were gone. "I know it isn't real matter… but it still takes thought to shape each one of these things. Based on what I've seen, only someone like you would be able to actually work with it. All the…" She struggled to make the word come out. Her tongue did not want to behave, but it cooperated in time. "p-pokemon here are completely mad: their idea of matter's all wrong, but all this looks perfect. What was the point of all this?"

The human shape that was the Eldest reached into a bookshelf Logan had not known was there, selecting carefully one gold and leather volume from hundreds and flipping it open casually as he thought. "Would you do any different? Every ounce of this place is a little different. Nothing is constant or stable: It cannot support true life: all the energy that existed here before I came was many times exceeded by the chemical energy of a sandwich, spread across literally infinite size. It was impossible to keep this place secret. When I arrived nearly a million years ago there was nothing here, just the cloud that burned all that it touched. You wouldn't believe how many flocked to it to kill themselves: Pieces of pokemon that had known only pain for time much longer than the lifespan of our universe. Most simply avoided me, their minds long since given over to the collective. But some very small percentage traveled here like pilgrims, remembering the lives they had once led and missing them, not hating them." He turned back to her, closing the book in his arms. "You saw the story of our ancestors, the machine they made in ignorance that nearly drove us to extinction. They weren't evil, not in any way we understand it. Many were just curious. Some didn't concern themselves with it at all, and lived their lives in the freedom our species has cherished in any age. Only those who defied to the point of violence survived to become us. Think about how many mew the whole planet could support. The ones that lasted that long gathered to watch me, the first newcomer to this dark space they've ever seen. They knew they could not survive the torrent of energy that poured down, but they wanted desperately to taste it anyway. When they saw what I did with it… building as best I could this copy of the world they knew, many wanted desperately to join me here. I made it only to help keep me sane… a hobby, I guess. But I knew I had energy to spare, so I let them come."

Logan became conscious of another human figure in the room with them, a pale ghostlike thing that must have taken this shape as she had, the figure of her guide watching from a respectful distance. She tried not to look too closely. One arm was attached to the torso a little too low, and the skin was twisted as though by some horrible internal rot. The thing was so thin… Logan could not imagine where it put its organs. She didn't much want to know. It was horrible to hear it speak, but not nearly so horrible as the things she had seen in the dark and the cold. It rattled the air as it did, shaky and unsteady like the dying breath of the worst cancer-victim. "He took care of us: The pokemon you call Eldest we call our savior." She swayed on thin legs, which became less and less disfigured the more she studied the way Logan looked. "Not all of us enjoy the insanity of this nightmare pace you call our universe. We do not know why He came here, but he has treated us well. He has reminded us what being real is like. Enough of his lessons, and someday we'll remember. Then maybe we can come back to our old world, not as a tumor, but like an old friend. If not that, then… maybe at least we'll be alive enough to die for good." She fixed Logan with eyes that tilted unevenly, rotating in a way no proper human eye might move. Nevertheless, the expression was sincere, even as it raised the powerful urge to vomit. "You musn't think of all of us as evil, mew. We're only what fate made us. Your friend is giving us the power to change ourselves."

She did not have the strength to reply, or even to make eye-contact with this poor shadow of what had once been alive. She could only avert her eyes and nod, hoping it made the thing leave her alone. It did. She did not spend much time thinking about its words then, not nearly so much as she would in the days and weeks to come.

'_Five' _

The Eldest's face grew urgent suddenly, abrupt. "We're out of time, Logan. You need to know some things before you go. A group of powerful and important humans has arranged to have us replaced: They've already forced David to agree to their demands or else get all legendaries removed from their ships, where we can't contribute at all. I suspect they will use my death as further evidence Legendaries are dangerous and unpredictable. If they discover you here, they may try to frame you for my murder. You cannot blame them for it: You must not try to discover who it was or take vengeance on my behalf. The knife used to kill me can only be used by a very rare individual: Completely corrupt but still physically intact. I arranged for him to get the power he needed to kill me." He looked sad too, an emotion she had not often seen on him. "I don't think I will see you again. We have more than enough energy here to keep us going. When you leave, I'll seal the gateway." He took hold of her arms, even as her eyes began to water again. "First, take the knife. Make sure it's returned to its owner, you will need his help when the time finally comes to reactivate the ladder. Second, I need you to find Sabrina. Tell her… tell her that she was right, she's won. She'll understand. Lastly…" Logan felt herself being pulled, stretched… like sand falling upward in an hourglass. She fought it just long enough to listen to the last words she would ever hear from him. "find Also. She doesn't know where Atlantis is, but she's close. Find it. You do not need all of the Worldships: Win those you can, but do not fight for them. Each one is a fortress. Just as I orchestrated events to ensure my murder, I have arranged for the support you need. Erica on Joshua is loyal to us, as well as Gary of the Levi and Aile of the Issachar. Protect those three ships above all else, and if the others will not help you, then there is nothing we can do. Let them fight however they choose: any of the exarchs attacking them means more time for you to do what you need to."

Logan kissed him then, kissed him for the last time, and he kissed her back. There was no pain in her gesture anymore, no trace of that same loneliness. The tension between them was gone, two decades turned to distant memory in two seconds. "Bye." She was being pulled back, a puppet on a string being dragged backwards through a wormhole, with air rushing all around her, painfully. Then, with the energetic "pop!" of a new bottle of champagne, Logan was in her own body, and the whirlwind of energy pouring into the dagger abruptly stopped.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"There were at least a hundred people waiting out here, and they all looked mad." Marilyn padded along beside Jamie, her tiny voice squeaking. Jamie was not an old and experienced pokemon, but she felt big next to the Shaymin's delicate, plantlike body. It was strange to feel like the more important of their pair. She reveled in it, though being so important was also a terrifying responsibility. Her fear of flying outside, so high in the air without Logan to catch her, was far worse than any worry about what the pokemon might do. After all… no pokemon had ever hurt a mew. The Shaymin lacked such safeguards however, and it showed in Marilyn's face.

The fear fled as the huge outer-door opened. If indeed there had been a large crowd there was only a handful now, and the pokemon that did remain hardly qualified as fearful. Most of them were electrical, standing behind a Riolu whose name Jamie knew she should remember but that she couldn't remember for the life of her, until it clicked. "Where is everybody, Richard? Did you send them all away?" How he could have done that, she could not guess. Hadn't he been assigned to the group he had been because of… lack of motivation or something? Probably the same group she would have been sorted into had she been human.

The Riolu seemed somewhat uneasy, glancing back at the Plusle and Minun standing just behind him. The glance was almost fearful, though there was more annoyance in it than anything. "They made me do it." He said, after a moment. "And lemmie tell you sis…" His eyes fell on the Shaymin, and that was where they stayed. "You owe me big! You wouldn't believe what it took to get the other pokemon to shut up and leave. But _they_-" Another pointed glance behind him. "wouldn't leave me alone about it. They said it was the only way to get the legendaries to come out."

"We were right, weren't we?" A female voice squeaked. Squirming to get past the Riolu and look up at the mew, a plusle and minun collectively tripped on one another, and rolled onto the ground in front of them. Looking greatly embarrassed, but not nearly so much thatthey were willing to give up their little wrestling match, the minun propped his forepaws up on the plusle's back and finished what his companion had started. "We really really really really need to talk to you!" He was looking straight up at the mew, though his sister continued what he'd been saying from the ground. "We found somebody who looked like your older brother last time we needed help, but I don't know if we will ever find him again, so… I hope you can help us instead!"

Jamie giggled as she watched the pair, landing on the ground in front of them, and folding her arms in a way she hoped looked judgmental and peremptory. She didn't do a very good job. "Big brother… you mean like… big sister? I don't have any brothers…"

"He was definitely a boy." The plusle stood up again, though not before shocking her brother with what was doubtless meant to be painful. Naturally it wasn't. "He was the only one we've met who seemed to know what was going on. Please… we've just found out something really important! At least… we think we have. We didn't get to do much testing cuz'a when we got picked up, but… you can check the ship's logs! We know we saved her… it took a little while to figure out what had happened, but there isn't another explanation! She's safe and human again, and we did it! We're the cure for the soulphage!"

Jamie knew she was out of her depth the moment she heard that last word. The slightly sinking ship was urgent, but not nearly so much as this. How many people were there that had succumb to a soulphage infection… a billion? More? But she was too weak to reach the collective unconsciousness of her species, too young and feeble. If there was even the slightest chance. She looked over to Marilyn. "Do you… think you can handle my mom's instructions? Now that the pokemon are gone… I'll take them to the Joshua and let them talk to David. She'll know what to do."

The Shaymin protested, somewhat annoyed that her company for the day had been stolen. "Eh Jamie, you're just gonna believe them without even checking first? Why don't you at least… do that mew thing you do. Look in their heads and stuff, see what they mean? You can't just believe everything you hear!"

'They sounded honest.' Jamie had been about to say, until she realized how stupid she would sound and didn't. Of course she had considered the possibility (it being the most likely) that they were wrong somehow, whether honestly or otherwise. But the mastery she had over her powers was hardly something Jamie would write home about. If she had one. "You… just get some of that stupid flower. I'll double check. But if there's even a chance they could be right… I'm going with them and you'll have to take care of the power-conduit problem yourself."

The Shaymin glared, stuck her tongue out, and hurried past the group, looking somewhat upset. Jamie did her best to ignore her, focusing on the task at hand. "I'm going to look at your memories… could one of your focus on the proof? Like… what made you think you're telling the truth…"

The Minun stood on tiptoe, raising one forepaw in the air. "Me, me! You can use me… I'm thinking about it right now…" Jamie nodded, reaching out and touching one forepaw on the Minun's head, trying to make a connection with him. And Jamie was honest with herself. She expected it to go badly. She couldn't imagine just how badly it would go. In retrospect, she figured the behavior was somehow instinctual, just as a landmine was programmed to explode when exposed to pressure from above. The instant her mind came anywhere close to Adam's (though she did not know his name), his eyes went wide, and something that shared only a passing resemblance with electricity lanced between the Minun and his sister, and straight through Jamie's little brain along the way. The mew was completely paralized, frozen and unable to move, barely able to think except to scream.

Jamie was elsewhere in the ship, a tiny human girl climbing desperately from deck to deck as the Ephriam sunk slowly into an ocean of tar, scrambling alone through dark hallways, using windows and sometimes weapons to open up the way above her. Then light crashed down, an invisible wave that she welcomed against the darkness, scrambling ever faster to reach it. Once she reached it, though, her screams only got louder. The air burned around her, her eyes were blinded in the white and began to pour blood. Her ears were overwhelmed in the rush of the ocean, which grew louder as thousands of voices joined in. Some were familiar, though most were strange, speaking in celestial tongues. She could understand some of them. "Save her, we can save her." Some of them chanted as she dropped into the fetal position on the deck, clutching at her knees and whimpering, wanting it all to stop.

Then the rush of tar from below reached her, pouring down into her lungs which she realized were as rotten as the rest of her organs. The voices changed. "Can't. The void has her already. Can't save her without killing her, no telling where her soul would end up if we did."

"Have to try." Someone said, and the tar began to boil as the light followed, burning her with it. Jamie screamed all the louder though her lungs were clogged with it, because the tar _was_ her. "S-stop." She wanted to whimper, in a voice of quiet shame. "D-don't do it… I don't want to die…"

_Jamie! _The mew opened her eyes weakly, dimly aware that she was being carried. She recognized the voice before the face. It was Richard, the Shaymin's twin brother. He was standing still in a faint and flickering sphere of a shield, which strained and buckled under the energy that came from the pair of tiny electrical faces, eyes wide and sightless. For a moment… as Jamie watched, regaining her strength, she saw the energy fade, and the pair slide to the ground with an expression of bewilderment and weakness, glancing around for a few seconds before their eyes fell again on Jamie. There was only confusion there, no suspicion or anger, so she knew they hadn't seen what she had seen. With a shiver, she popped out of Richard's arms, holding herself shakily in the air as she spoke. "I… Richard, can you tell your sister I've… decided that I trust them? I'm taking these two to the Joshua immediately."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The focus returned to Logan's eyes like a miracle granting vision to the blind. She hated everything she saw… the stabilizing singularity, the array of troops rushing towards her from the entrance, the Eldest's corpse. Still, the sight of real, true matter made every hideous thing, every pool of blood and every corpse somehow charming and wonderful. Had her judgement not already been severely compromised, she might have been a danger to both of them as her mind slowly returned.

She was fortunately denied that opportunity by the shimmering outline that took shape in the air by the door. She had not seen the Eldest's sculpture before, so had no way of recognizing it. Even in her addled state though, it was impossible for her _not _to see what it did. The thing resembled a ball of yarn slowly unraveling, and as it did, the thing rolled across the open doorway, leaving a curtain of blazing illusory flame. _W-what do we do, Logan?_ She heard Miya's voice squeak into her mind, loud enough to startle her from her reverie and into full consciousness. She assessed the situation as quickly as she could. Singularity? The stabilization equipment was working on its own despite the way most of the control interface had been torn apart. AI? Probably. The troops probably had something to do with who or what had planted her own mental signature on the viciously murdered guards. Which meant they would probably try to capture her, or much more likely, outright kill her. And she couldn't fight these people. They were simple troops, likely with no knowledge at all of whatever was going on. That left only one option.

Logan lifted off the ground with a violent blast of air, eyes widening with the delight of actually, really flying after what felt like so long. She knew it was just an illusion of perception. She had only spent a few seconds touching the blade, after all. That came with her, lifting out of the corpse and holding its position beside her. Miya was drawn towards her too, right about the time when the soldiers realized that the flames were a projection, and passed fearlessly through them. By then though, Logan had angled herself downward through the vent where matter was drawn up, blasting out and away from the worldship. She did not go far, though, before looking seriously at Miya, holding them momentarily stationary in the air.

"I need to rescue your sister. The Eldest has something for you to do, too. Take this." The knife drifted down beside Miya, who took it dutifully in her forepaws, awkwardly. "I'm sending you to Sabrina… you need to tell her that Terah is dead. Tell her that she's won their bet. After that, find your way to the Levi, the Issachar, or the Joshua and stay safe." Miya had no time to protest, and she knew it. She could feel the energy-differential of a teleport building around her even as Logan finished what she was saying. There wasn't even time for a goodbye before the loud crack of her outgoing transport, leaving Logan alone.

Not for long, as the automated fighter drones lifting off of the top levels one by one attested. Logan closed her eyes, concentrating on the most difficult transport she'd ever attempted… into a storage closet on the second floor. The hard part, of course, was that she was transforming at the same time. There was no time to think, so she took the shape that she used most often: a young human woman whose appearance she twisted at the last second to try and make herself less recognizable. Pink hair turned brown, blue eyes turned green, and her whole body shrunk another several years, a military uniform replaced with that of a simple custodian. A pushcart of cleaning supplies from the closet completed the illusion, and soon she was out into the hall, walking with head down and struggling for a moment to get the cart over a large lip in the ground. It was a fairly convincing act, and seemed to fool the first group of soldiers that passed her as she headed slowly up the gently curving ramp.

"ID." A guard said without looking at her as she passed through a metallic division in the stone, where a guard-post had been carved into the wall, connected directly to the controls for the bulkhead. The custodian fished into her pocket, pulling out a pice of plastic then standing on tiptoe, looking directly into the guard's face as she put on a show that was mostly for the cameras. "Please hurry… I'm already late. Apparently there's some sort of horrendously awful mess outside the top-floor atrium, and it's making the whole deck stink like you won't believe. Chances are a Garbador or something got loose…" It would take a trained observer to notice the way her eyes widened slightly, or the blank expression that came over the guard as he passed the ID back without scanning it, opening the door with the press of a button and letting her through. He didn't say a thing, and once the door had shut behind her, returned to his reading as though nothing at all had happened.

Logan's luck lasted another floor or so, until her not-entirely-real ID failed to pass inspection by a pair of armored guards positioned between her and the atrium. The pokemorphs consulted with their radio for a moment, until with an expression almost apologetic, they turned their weapons on her. Logan ducked as the air above her lit up with sizzling energy, which struck the wall behind her and melted through it with very little delay. The screams of children came from inside, as the wall seemed to open into some sort of classroom. Fortunately, there were no students nearby to be splattered by molten rock and metal. There were plenty who saw the girl leap with a Gymnist's grace through the half-molten opening, skidding on her back into the classroom and getting quickly to her feet.

It seemed for a moment as though the flickering hologram of their instructor was too stunned to react, staring openly as Logan ran from the room. The door slammed off its hinges as she got there, clobbering another of the soldiers that had already made her way around to the front. "Sorry!" She shouted behind her as she ran, ducking down another passage, back onto the main hallway on the other side of the checkpoint. Unfortunately, that was where the soldiers were pouring from, and the light cracks of energy-weapons fire followed her as she rounded the corner, away from the ocean of plasma that melted a new hallway through the place she had just been standing. The girl scrambled to her feet to the sound of hammering metallic footsteps, which followed her as she practically flew into a matinence shaft. She didn't bother with the rungs of the ladder inside, ditching her human form entirely and soaring rapidly up to atrium level, blasting another hatch out of her way, moving rapidly along a horizontal shaft that was barely big enough for humans to crawl through, flying in an irregular zigzag that made it impossible for any of those targeting her to get an accurate shot.

Logan could not have been more relieved to hear the voice of another mew in her head. She was so relieved in fact that it did not particularly bother her that it was somebody she had never met before. Too old to be any mew she knew? Bigger problems. '_Well if it isn't the other pokemon they're trying to kill for no reason.' _Much to Logan's frustration, the voice was coming from below, in the direction she had just come from. Worse was the feeling of inter-spacial vibration coming from all around her, a deep bass note in the back of her head. That meant the ship had gone into combat alert, activating each and every defense mechanism. Teleportation would be impossible now, and flying far enough to get out of weapons range would involve actually remaining in weapons range of the largest and most powerful ship that humanity commanded. '_Can you make it to Airfield 17? You can hitch a ride with my friend and I. He's nearly taken care of the lockouts… we've got a pilot, too. One of the best.'_

'_Can't!' _She replied, curling into the space behind a structural support. '_Got to find my daughter. Tried calling her, didn't answer. She must be unconscious or something… have to find someone who saw her, then maybe they'll remember something I can use to-' _She stopped as a large male Umbreon emerged from beside her, pausing to survey her a moment before leaping. The poor thing was entirely unprepared for the Aura Sphere that slammed it unconscious to the wall beside Logan, which had the unfortunate side-effect of alerting all the others combing these tunnels for her. With a sigh, she took to the air again, fading out of sight in one of mew's simplest powers. As she had known, it did her little good for long. Even the pure-pokemon that had been sent after her had implants sufficient to see through such shallow protection. But she wasn't stopped yet, and she was far faster than any of those who followed.

'_No need. I know exactly where your daughter is. At least… assuming she's Jamie. Met her a few times before, actually, but she had something important to do. Transported to the Joshua not long ago.'_

Relief filled Logan then. The Joshua was one of the ships the Eldest had named as being safe and critical to the success of their plan. Jamie would be safe there, she was sure of it. Which meant she could concentrate on herself. This proved to be more of a hindrance than a help, though. With a mission outside herself, fueled by the powerful and ancient instincts of any mammalian mother, she would've continued fearlessly, tearing the worldship apart until she eventually located Jamie or (more likely) was either captured or shot. There was no question in her mind about whether or not she could trust the voice: She recognized it immediately as both a mew and a complete stranger, which somehow made her feel _better_ about the whole thing. It was after all, very hard to lie to someone when you connected directly with their mind. '_How are you going to stop them from shooting you down?' _She asked, even as she blasted down a ladder, corkscrewing around the soldiers that waited on each deck she passed much faster than they could get an accurate shot.

The voice that answered then was utterly familiar to Logan, though she had not expected to hear it. Not since the world-renown inventor and engineer Alvin Tucker had simply failed to appear at the date and time David had calculated. She remembered the quiet vigil the older mew had held… she had been there to watch, offering what little comfort she could. But here his voice was again, sounding infinitely older and more experienced than the Pikachu she had once helped save from his own instincts. '_We're not stealing just /any/ ship, Logan.'_ He said, his voice piggybacked through the stranger's. '_There was only one of them listed in the computer, so I know it must be good. Experimental Spiritomb-Class Long Range Nuclear Bomber. Such a long name has to mean it's good. How many soldiers did we have to get rid of to get in here?'_

The stranger's voice sounded in Logan's mind again. '_We? You mean I, Alvin. You didn't do a damn thing.'_

But she was no longer listening. Logan, after all, had the remarkably difficult task of finding her way down to this lower-level airfield while being followed by half the soldiers aboard. As she flew, occasionally dropping into alcoves for a few panting seconds of rest, she was immensely thankful for these maintenance tunnels, which protected her from the worst of her enemies. The largest Pokemon, the heavy mech-assisted soldiers with individual AI controlling each of their weapons… these were the sorts of troops she managed to avoid. Granted, those sorts of troops also took a great deal of time to get moving. Once they were… she'd reached a lower deck when her shield nearly buckled with the force of several high-caliber armor-piercing rounds, which flew straight and true through one of the walls and into her shield. She stumbled, slamming into the rear wall of the shaft with the pressure, nearly losing consciousness at the force of the impact alone. Knowing that failure meant death, Logan focused on maintaing a Calm Mind, allowing everything else to fade from her conscious in the few milliseconds it took the transmitters in the smart-rounds to radio back to the gun that they had found their target. A few rounds became thousands, but not before the mew had reacted. She abandoned the rest of her shield, focusing entirely on the direction the bullets had come from, ignoring all forms of energy that were not inertial. Both paws extended, she closed her eyes for the hellish barrage that could've torn through just about any physical substance. That was how these new weapons worked after all… a thousand bullets from five different barrels in less than a second. Each one fell like a pointed raindrop, self-detonating after a short distance down the hall. The mew did not pause long enough to look through the huge hole the weapons-fire had made in the wall in front of her, or fire back at the thing that had tried to kill her. She simply fell, dropping the remaining twelve decks and shooting along a horizontal shaft until she found the hatch she needed, swinging it carefully open. Air immediately began to rush in, quickly drawing her spiraling into the airless and mostly empty airfield. She restored her shield weakly, the shimmering barely able to catch enough air for her to breathe as she moved with new weariness towards the ship that held the only chance of her escape. Even inactive the outline seemed to shimmer on the air, the reflective metal of the ship seeming to skirt her attempts to look at it. It was only a top-hatch, which was open and waiting for her, that let her focus on the thing at all.

As she passed through the hatch, it slammed closed behind her, and a faintly flickering force-field separating it from the rest of the ship vanished. "She's here." Logan dimly head a synthesized voice say, as she collapsed onto the thick tiles, consciousness already fleeing her. Logan was so very tired… hadn't slept in days, not since that brief nap the SAM had helped her with back in the Forbidden City. How much had she done since then? Traveled briefly to one version of the void, fought an army, teleported her daughter across a continent, been attacked by the crew of her own ship without so much as a word of accusation, see the Eldest's corpse. It was all too much, crushing her like the weight of ages. The sound of a low rumbling from all around her, then an explosion. "Exterior doors open. Stealth systems engaged." That was it, before the merciful blackness of unconsciousness overtook her and she thought no more.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jamie was somewhat unsurprised to find another mew waiting for her on the other side of the portal. She was only a _little_ surprised that mew was David. More than anything she was proud. Not quite as good as being addressed personally by the Eldest, but… David was pretty much as close as she would ever get. So they'd finally payed attention to her, eh? Now that she had something they wanted (a cure for the soulphage) they were actually going to pay attention to her? Jamie intended to draw this out as long as possible, though she doubted the Plusle and Minun would be pleased with her efforts on that front. She never got the chance.

'The Eldest is dead.' David said, almost the instant she had stepped off the platform. That was what she had come to expect from David though. He was always blunt, direct. A fire, really. Not discrete or too clever, but damn did it burn hot. 'They found him dead in the core of Ephraim. The human prefect says all the evidence points to Logan as his killer. Celeste is flying there now to investigate the claims for herself, but the evidence is pretty convincing. I'm going to have to ask you to come with me.'

Jamie watched in horror as David's words strangled, beat, and buried her excitement. She visibly drooped onto the deck of the platform. One minute she was practically bouncing, the next… not so much. There was very little sadness for the death of the Eldest. Jamie had never much liked him, and he had liked her even less. She _was _afraid for what would happen in the war without him, but she hadn't had nearly enough time to think that far ahead. In truth, she even felt a little guilty for not being more sad about his passing. Whatever guilt she felt vanished at once with a wave of indigence at what David said next, in what was perhaps the first outright anger she had ever expressed. It was hardly anything to marvel over, just a calm, cold voice, almost a whisper. "We didn't do _anything _like that." She said, moving almost protectively between David and the three charged rodents. "My mother would never hurt another mew, especially the Eldest. I don't know what happened, but there must be some mistake." She put her forepaws together, imagining David snapping a miniature pair of handcuffs around them. He might as well have for what happened next. Without reaching forward, without so much as touching her, they were standing in a plain beige and exceptionally cramped cell, with a solid force-field instead of bars.

'_Sorry_.' David said, and he sounded like he mostly meant it._ 'Logan ran. Can't risk you might do the same.'_

But that wasn't Jamie's first worry. "What about the pokemon I came with? They're… more important than anything!" She raised her forepaws, eyes watering with both frustration and pain. Betrayal.

'_They've been stored away in pokeballs until we've figured out what the hell is going on. Since they came with you, they might be connected to the death. Otherwise we'd just release them into the arboretum.'_

Jamie lifted off the ground, flying right up to David's face and giving her best, most convincing angry glare. "Go ahead and kill me then. Tear all my knowledge and all my memories apart. You won't find anything. None of us did anything wrong, so I've got nothing to hide. You can see any of my thoughts you want to. Just… please keep the Plusle and Minun safe… they're more important than anything right now! Maybe… you should interrogate me about that part first. I can show you everything!'

She did. David ignored her request to examine the facts surrounding the pokemon she had brought first, instead going as far back as their last time together, and examining each and every memory Jamie had acquired since then. She watched Jamie's descent into the bowels of the earth, Logan's brief 'battle' with the Guardian of the Forbidden City, and their flight into the Voidship. She saw little else of value then… Jamie and Miya playing on a beach, although one particular moment stood out for her. As Jamie felt it, she watched David slow down in her examinations, paying this particular memory much more attention.

Jamie was standing on her hindpaws in the sand and looking up at Glowworm, who's tube hovered in the air in front of her, listening to Logan speaking from above her. "The SAM has volunteered to stay behind. It has something critically important to our survival to complete."

Jamie felt herself whimpering in the memory, lifting off into the air and glaring at the SAM. She had become greatly attached to it in their very brief acquaintance… now it was staying down here, in a place she knew full well she would probably never see again? No matter the reason, it was wrong of Logan to make her do that!

Glowworm seemed to sense her words for the way the tube moved close to her, and she imagined a soft, parental sort of expression on its face as it spoke to her, very quietly and softly. /Hush little baby./ Said it's tone. /This is important, someday you'll learn./ It spoke, very gently. '_I know you don't want me to go, but your mother's right. Only an AI with the knowledge of a legendary could do this. Even your Eldest would get tired after awhile and all his work would be for nothing. But I can do it. With the help of this ship, I mean…'_

"What are you doing that's so important?" Jamie asked, her voice pitiful and quiet. "What matters so much that you're willing to stay down here forever?"

It seemed the SAM wasn't too concerned with the correctness of some of Jamie's exaggerations. What it was clearly very concerned with was the mission, and she answered very quickly. '_The same things your ancestors did, only correctly. I'm… helping Logan. Or I will be… if I can manage in time. Just think!_' There was genuine excitement in her voice now. '_I'm going to be the first person alive to actually /see/ it! Your ancestors gave their lives in a stupid attempt to invade it, but I don't want any of that. I just… I want to know if my sisters go there when they die.' _Then a little quieter. '_I want to know if I have a soul.'_

David watched the rest of what had happened to her, but Jamie felt that only dimly. There was nothing of real interest to see after their time in the voidship, and she knew it. She knew David would only see what she had seen, so there would be little to _defend _Logan. There was some real guilt, some fresh guilt, and David could see exactly why. If Jamie had been a proper mew, she would've been inside Logan's head the whole time, and been able to show in her memories exactly what her mother was thinking. How could anyone argue against a testimony like that? As it was, all she could prove was that she herself wasn't in any way connected with the event.

David barely skimmed over the last bit the first time, until Jamie herself briefly took control and _forced_ the other mew to watch, something she did with much greater interest when the memory of Jamie's pain came flooding back. She felt it anew as she watched her screaming torture from the side, feeling herself acquire burns she could see still charred into her fur. David replayed the memory over and over, listening to each and every voice that echoed in Jamie's head and growing more afraid of her after each one. Jamie heard them all in painful detail now, slow and hollow like the voices of machines or the dead.

"It's only a matter of time." One of the voices screamed, echoing down through the conduit that the Plusle and Minun together made to… somewhere. "No reflection anymore. How can we even call it alive?"

It was the next voice that chilled Jamie the most, chilled her so much that she twisted free of the simulation and broke contact with David, forcefully. So chilled her, because the voice sounded _exactly _like David. "We'll find out." It said. "The fire will be its lifeline. If anything remains, we know it was alive. If not… then one Exarch down."

A/N: Another chapter down! Not quite so long as the old one, but… still quite substantial. A little too much for my taste… these things are so long these days they're insanely hard to write! At least within a reasonable timeframe. I'm sorry I didn't post this chapter sooner. I actually meant to, but I kept forgetting in my travel arrangements and neglected to post it. Hopefully the next chapter will be released more reliably.

The following are responses to the reviews I received, as usual. Hopefully I remembered to type up my response to all of them… as usual, it's the reviews that keep me motivated to write, and help me improve the quality of my work in general.

ShadowVee

Holy crap that was a fast first review. Just a few hours, then BAM! New email already. Very glad I've kept you interested, and… it seems you have all this figured out better than I do. You're right, a very small black hole would make for a very good power source. I wish I could say my calculations were as through as yours for the parts of the story that are to come. It's very difficult to do power-consumption calculations for (largely) fictional technology. Suffice it to say that, based on what I figured, the quazar's power is largely just wasted or invested to produce matter in new areas of the ship. On the other hand, when the ship is doing more than just flying, and its shielding systems and/or weapons are doing more than just idling, I have no doubt the energy it requires will jump from that of a large city to… well, we'll just find out in a chapter or two, I expect.

Ch425

For someone who speaks english as a second english, you seem remarkably coherent in your speech and such. Still, I can relate to the confusion you must be feeling, and as per your request, I'll write a Hussie style "Story so far" following this paragraph, including the content of the chapter that you just read. As for the Reverse world, it's from the movie "Giratina and the Sky Warrior", and it's also present in the diamond and pearl pokemon games, a realm where the rules of reality do not apply ruled by a single godlike being. Naturally I have my own ideas as to what's really going on.

Kirby

Dang you, now I actually have to get back to writing! (sticks tongue out) Well, Suppose I should get this done first, answering what questions I can and all. Sorry about those errors you noticed in the last chapter. I'm not sure if I've fixed it by now, but… nobody's perfect, right? Like I said earlier, with Bit is was either Lugia or manaphy, and I was all out of manaphies. I don't think an AI would work for an eddie, though. Not alive and everything. For the reccord, Alvin looks totally like a normal human being to just about anyone. I don't want to say what he's becoming, but I will say that it's fully within the capacity of the readers of this story (both on and off skype) to figure out exactly what it is, assuming they are knowledgeable and estute pokemon readers. I will not say more.


	12. Now That He's Dead

Chapter 11: "Now that He's Dead…"

Wherever Logan had been brought was soft and warm, and she lay there without thinking or caring for hours, perhaps days. She was dimly conscious of the smell of fruity shampoo, the feel of soft incubator lights and sterile medical smells further away, but she did not try to think about them. Not until she felt someone lift her into their arms and slide a bottle of warm something between her lips. She drank compulsively, though the fluid was not milk and tasted awful. She hadn't eaten at least a week now, and even for a mew that was pushing things quite a bit further than was comfortable. "Mgmhmm" She squirmed, slowly opening her eyes. She had been wrong about a person holding her… as her mind slowly returned, she felt the familiar buzz of a solid hologram against skin and fur. Medical program maybe? She dressed like one if nothing else: a doctor in white scrubs, her hair sharply back and her eyes a deep blue soft and compassionate and gentle.

The program seemed to realize Logan had woken up, possibly due to the medical monitor clipped to her collar. "Drink all of it, pokemon." The hologram whispered to her gently, tilting her back a little to make the process easier. It helped, but not much. Logan was too weak to fight it, not the warmth of the lights on her, or the soothing sound of a heartbeat she knew was entirely simulated, or the gentle grip she knew to be equally unreal. She tried to speak with her mouth full… and of course she only coughed up some of the nutrient-slurry. The Holigram gasped, removing the bottle for a moment and wiping the slurry from her face, "Be patient, Logan. Finish this first and then we can talk… alright?"

Logan screwed up her face at this, trying to look as unhappy with that plan as she could with the bottle between her lips, but she did not protest. Ordinarily she would have argued mentally, for instance, but there was no mind to connect to here, so telepathy wouldn't do. She wondered if it would be possible to communicate with the AI at all, given the quality of most pokemon translations, but let that thought slide from her mind as she focused on finishing the fluid. She recognized the taste as she became more awake: A time-released formula that would keep her healthy (though hardly satisfied) for another week at least. When she was finished, she spat the container as hard and as far away as she could, looking seriously up into the face of the hologram. "Whose program are you?" She asked simply, praying she would be understood. Really all she wanted was to be sure she hadn't been entrusted to whatever medical program had been built into this ship. The eldest had warned her about the way humans had planned this revolution for some time: it was likely they had been building hardware well in advance with this in mind.

Logan could not imagine an answer that would have frightened her more, and as the AI spoke, she lifted clear of her arms and ripped the scanner out of her fur, dropping it to the ground. "I belong to Averett Irongate. He designed me personally based on data recovered from…" She stopped at Logan's reaction, not oblivious to the logic that moved her. Averett, father of prefect Edward, architect of the rebellion. There was nobody worse. She put her hands up. "Relax! I'm not loyal to him or anything. His daughter Izzy kidnapped me when she escaped from her island: Working for her has been a significant improvement over her father. If not always as… _interesting._"

And Logan did stop, the logic of the situation catching up with her. If Izzy and Alvin wanted to harm her, they would have been well-placed to do it while she was unconscious. The AI doubly so, since she had evidently been entrusted to its care. "Who's piloting this aircraft?" She asked instead, landing with as much dignity as she could manage on a nearby counter.

"Me." The woman answered, turning away from Logan and cleaning up what little mess had been made of the medical bay. It did not take her long. "You can call me Paige. Not that you will. Most people just call me 'program' or 'assistant', and legendaries are worse." She looked almost hurt as she said this, though she also seemed to be going to great pains to avoid looking it. True emotion, or as close as an AI could come.

The mew just stared, eyes wide as she considered what she would say. Now that she was fully awake, she was painfully conscious of how much she had to do. Finding Also would be difficult enough, but it was the easiest thing on her agenda for the day. How long did they have until the exarchs arrived, five days, maybe four? Still, she didn't ignore the program as many others had. "Paige." She said, playing with the word in her mouth a moment as she said it. Whoever had given it to her must have had quite the fondness for her. There was something familiar in the way this AI behaved, something she was sure Bit would've recognized. She didn't, but that didn't make her any less courteous. "Where are we headed, Paige? If you're the one steering this ship, you must have a destination."

The AI nodded, pleasantly surprised that the mew hadn't darted from the room to speak to the biological members of their crew. There was no sense hiding anything from her. So she answered. "Altomare. None of us were sure where to go, but Izzy went looking through your thoughts while you slept and you seemed to know where you were going. Apparently you're supposed to find someone there? She didn't poke around long enough to find out who or why, but… we thought we would drop you off. Would you like me to call Alvin and Izzy down here? If you don't have the strength…"

"No." The mew answered, smiling. "I'd like to get a good look at this ship, anyway. Where are they?" Paige told her, and just like that Logan was out of the medical bay, floating slowly through the impressive ship. As she passed into an elevator, she began to walk, carefully crafting her standard human body and a set of ordinary civilian clothes to wear. She spent the extra few moments as the elevator shot upwards to remove the pink from her hair and subdue the bright blue of her eyes, walking as casually as she could out of the door and onto the flight-deck.

Most of the walls of the flight deck were either windows themselves or built out of transparent substances, so aisde from the controls superimposed on everything what Logan saw was almost entirely a direct translation of what was outside. It took total immersion in flight to a level she had never seen in an aircraft: Cameras projected pictures of what lay below the aircraft onto the floor. She could hardly imagine a way most humans would fly that would feel more real than this. And for once: She wished she wasn't flying.

They were passing dangerously low over a city: She couldn't tell which one. Some buildings burned, others merely rested under a blanket of ash. It was impossible to tell which ones were more than molted skeletons and which ones were simply dirty. The streets were worse: The awful loss of property was nothing to the life she was forced to see projected along the bottom of the aircraft: hundreds of thousands of slow-moving bodies with as many humanoid as pokemon shapes.

"Ground Zero." She heard someone say, looking up to see Alvin resting at one of the consoles, his feet propped up on a transparent counter or display of some kind. He looked… almost exactly as she remembered: A trainer ripped straight out of history. His equipment painfully out-of-date, his clothes garish at best, and his appearance… it was as though he hadn't aged a day since she had seen him restored to humanity after the events in Team Rocket's base near Mt. Moon. "It's awful, isn't it? Hit harder than any other city, according to the reports. Empty now: Not a single survivor. Not like some of the others, where people have locked themselves up in subways and skyscrapers…"

"Why did you take us here, Alvin?" She couldn't help but ask, taking a few steps towards the boy. But the more she looked at him the more she was frightened of him: This wasn't the same trainer she had rescued. He was wearing a privacy filter… was that the only reason she couldn't tell what he really looked like now? The mew stopped a few paces from him, folding her arms and looking down at where he'd perched himself atop the consoles. Rather than listen for his response, Logan drew one of her legs back, spreading her posture and tracing one of her hands palm-out through the air. It was rude, maybe, but she was fairly sure Alvin would not just attack her after all she'd done for him. She was correct.

He just sat there… not doing a thing to stop her though she shuddered at what he might've done if he'd wanted. When she had finished… and he did wait until she had _completely _finished, brushing herself off and trying to compose the shocked look from her face, his grin was only wider. Almost smug. "You're better than telling me I don't exist, right?" He asked, sliding down with a light thump into the seat proper and flicking a single switch. Various controls lifted up around him, and the whole display dimmed a little, with a thousand muted shapes superimposed over the world as he manually piloted the craft. "A Shaymin already told me that. It was cute and all, but…"

Logan cut him off. "You took Marilyn? That'd be great… did you take her brother too, the Riolu? He's a little slow, but anywhere's better than on _that_ ship right now. I wish we could take everyone."

Izzy answered, floating in from the elevator and looking entirely pokemon as she swam lazily through the empty space. "They came to us. Not like you… much more random. The shaymin looked like somebody had plucked her right out of the sky when she dropped in… they're asleep now." Izzy stopped a few inches in front of her head, hanging upside-down the way children did, her eyes wide and inquisitive. "Do you remember me, Logan? We met about a decade ago, but I looked different. I was _way_ bigger. Also _way _unpinker."

The woman nodded, subconsciously moving a pace or so backward from the feline. She could not help but look impressed and a little shocked for the second time she had entered this aircraft. First Alvin had _evolved_ (she supposed that was the word for it), and now this. Like all mew, Isabella Irongate aged physically with her knowledge, so that the stronger her powers became the larger she would grow. This would continue until she had matured beyond what her physical body could sustain, and she would die. Logan now understood this process more than most… she was amazed at how old the supposedly newborn mew looked. Older and stronger than herself, maybe even Bit. But that was not what she asked about: There would be time for that conversation later. "I remember you, yeah. The eldest sent me to check in on you… It looks like you're doing very well… better than last time. Guess you were right after all about developing more pokemon features over time."

Izzy seemed somewhat disinterested in this particular avenue of investigation. "Yeah we figured out why that was happening and everything. We were hoping you could, uh…" She struggled for a moment.

The scientist explained more coherently. "We have access to all the ship's files, and Paige can hook us into the Dakota network. But it's all raw tactical data that we don't understand. What is actually going on? What are… what are people doing to fight these infested things, and what are their plans for when the real threat arrives?"

She paused a moment, considering all of those questions. Logan hadn't thought about the actual war-plan in what felt like nearly a year. They'd drafted it before Izzy had been out of diapers, and humans had known about it for… a decade? Maybe more. Still, she had been one of the ones to write it originally, so these were hardly difficult questions. Their answers would have been restricted of course: But Alvin and Izzy were hardly a dangerous information leak. It wasn't as though they weren't currently traveling in a stolen ship, on the run from authorities that were trying to kill the both of them. "Show me an administration console." She said quietly, cracking her knuckles. "I'll tell you everything I know."

She did. It took several hours in all, hours spent pacing back and forth, sitting, and even a little floating. She began at the beginning, talking about the way inoculations had been dispersed. Coupled with a neural-support interface, it was demonstrated to be the most effective way at staving off the soulphage… but the idea of losing one's humanity proved to appeal to an (unsurprisingly) few humans. Most who were offered the inoculation refused. Logan used the ship's internal computer to access news footage from the earliest days of the infection, showing Alvin and Izzy the way huge populations were relocated to a few safe cities for processing, showing them the way nearly a billion people were converted into AIs, frozen, or transformed into pokemon/proto-humans to man the worldships. Unlike the official reports, she did not neglect the most obvious information, and didn't attempt to dodge the question when Alvin asked. "A billion's an impressive number for such a short time, but that's only half of the earth's population. What happened to the rest?"

She loaded up more footage, most of it underground stuff that had been uploaded to the unsensorable Deep Web: Shaky footage shot with cell phones and security cameras. What little she showed them told the bloody story of the majority of humanity: Holding what parts of cities they could without the aid of the military or anyone else. Pokemon trainers and rangers were sometimes enough to protect small bands taking shelter in subways and at the top of skyscapers: But in areas the infected took interest, flocking for hundreds or thousands of miles, no defense was enough. "Mewtwo says he counts about 300 million uninfected outside of the worldships and the quarantine zones." She explained. "I'm not sure how he has the time to count all of those people while defending New Island, but there you are."

That brought them to the second half of their question. "There are two hundred million 'people' officially counted in the war effort: This includes legendaries, humans, proto-humans, inoculated, but not wild pokemon living in worldship refuges. It also does not count any currently artificial former humans or pokemon." She brought up a map of the earth, a projected hologram in the center of the room. The positions of each of the worldships were highlighted there. She began removing them one at a time, until only five remained. "These are the ones that matter. The others are important and their loss would be devastating blah-blah-blah… but we can't count on their help. _Your brother…" _She addressed the mew who was skimming the roof above Alvin, pretending for a moment to walk with her huge paws. Logan was honestly amazed at her ability to play despite the situation. '_All the power of an adult with the maturity of a newborn.'_ Logan of course was not too old to remember what it was like to have that attitude. She wished she could have it now… and probably would have, if it wasn't for all the awful things that were happening. In a more peaceful world, Izzy might be a good friend: a mischievous partner with which to engage in various childhood antics: a more agreeable Miya.

She had a realistic idea of the chances of that now, though. And really, if there had been no war, the circumstances that had created her (and Alvin) would likely not have occurred. Alvin would be an old man: and likely credited with several great inventions he had never had the chance to create. Izzy would be a teenager, probably a trainer, probably talented. Logan supposed she might travel from region to region, collecting rare pokemon and eventually challenging for a league title. Then with her father's aid, she would open up a gym of her own, maybe marry some strapping trainer to come through after a few years, and start some breeding of her own. She didn't say any of that. Instead she said: "…has orchestrated a revolution. Our original plans involved legendaries leading the fight with the exarchs when they arrived. We would take the worldships out into space, get as many together as we could, and force them to fight us there. We hoped to minimize damage to the planet that way. Once they were out there, we would turn up our shields and pray to arceus that they wouldn't be able to stay in our reality long. Historical data for the last several attacks indicates an exponential curve in the time they can remain here. They were here for an hour last time, before the legendaries of that day sent them back where they'd come from. Bit thinks they could have stayed for several times as long unopposed… that means we'll have to hold out for at least a day, possibly two."

"But the plan has changed. I haven't told the others yet, but I will soon." She had half a mind to do it right then, reaching up with her mind and connecting with the other legendaries as a whole, show them the facts as she showed them to Alvin and Izzy. But the Eldest had said that some of them were just as evil as Edward had been. More concretely, many of them probably thought she had murdered the Eldest right about now. If she connected to the group with her mind, they would know exactly where to find her. Fast or not, she did not think for a moment this aircraft could outrun Lugia or Ho-Oh if one of them knew where to find her.

"Bit… she's my best friend, _much _better with machines and math and stuff… she showed me her calculations like a week after we came up with this plan, before the first worldship had even been built. She showed me that even if every worldship was at its maximum strength… which they wouldn't be… and the exarchs left after exactly twenty-four hours… which was unlikely… we would still come about an hour short of any of the ships surviving. Sure, there was a _chance_ our weapons would slow them down enough to make that difference, but it was never a very good chance. The exarchs are _very _difficult to kill once they get here. The Arceus motherships were far greater machines than the awkward human-mew fusion of technology that the Worldships are, and each one had a million different legendaries aboard. Our worldships are like paper boats in comparison to those ships. Twenty years just isn't enough time to take a civilization as far as we needed, and believe me we tried. But the truth is that we weren't advanced enough either."

She sighed then, unable to resist as she slumped into her seat a little. "Think about the infrastructure it took to maintain all human technology before the war. The complex system of manufacturing, transportation, repair, power generation, wireless signals… to maintain the level of advancement our ancient ancestors had is even more difficult. With a population as low as ours and for as long as it's been so low… we haven't really had the need of an infrastructure. Hell, humans thought we were extinct until recently. New Species pokemon and everything. Our technology was so dependable, and we had so much of it once, our population has been surviving on a gradually dwindling supply of machines for literally thousands of years. Sure it took forever to run down, but once it did, that was it. Think of it… as though tomorrow there were only a hundred people left on the planet. Sure, they'd have whole warehouses and stores and houses to loot. But that stuff would all start wearing out. A hundred generations down the line, do you think any of it would still be working? Can a population that small really retain all of its knowledge?"

"So we needed another way. But there were none we could think of: A more powerful weapon was right out. We had every legendary behind us, we had the most advanced technology we knew we had the time to build and the energy to fuel. So I found one. Have either of you heard Moonlight's Gambit before?"

Izzy shook her head, though she seemd to know more about it than Alvin. "That's an old pokemon story, isn't it? Poems… pokemon poems. Wild pokemon sometimes teach it to their offspring… the smarest ones anyways. Isn't it like a… system of morality? Like the folktales of early man."

"A little." She responded. "Though it's much more heavily grounded in actual fact. It's some of the oldest historical information we have, from the very first days of life on earth. We don't know how long ago… hundreds of millions, maybe even billions? Maybe less. It goes like this…"

She recited the whole of Moonlight's Gambit then, as best as she remembered. She told of the ancient society of her species that had rose before there were any other pokemon on earth. Then she hit the important part of the story, the great machine her species had built spanning the world, with parts harvested from across the primitive galaxy and brought together in one massive machine whose parts were mountains and whose power-conductors were oceans. Eventually the machine was ready, and mew activated it, expecting to change the universe forever. That was exactly what they did, and she quickly summarized the rest, explaining that the machine had been responsible for the creation of the exarchs, and the fabrication of the realm they inhabited just a step below what physics would lead one to call absolute zero.

"Their visits are getting longer and longer each time. Eventually they may never have to leave, a never-ending flood pouring in far faster than we can kill them. Remember that they used to be earth's population. Earth's _mew_ population. Each one is a legendary… they don't have any foot-soldiers. Well… I guess that's not true." They had the voidspawn after all, and the infested. But these were just tools, tools that they would dispose of without thought as soon as they lost their value. "This is the key… the answer. You can't tell anyone… not even the other legendaries. Edward has this _insane _idea that he might be able to make some sort of pact with the Exarchs, and it could be that he's won some of us over to that idea. None of the other species has been raised the way they ought to… they stagnated worse than we have, in some cases."

She waited for their word… mental and physical… for a total assurance that they would betray her secret to no one. Then she told them, explaining it so fast that it was all a mad rush, and she found herself confronted by a pair of confused faces, gawking in complete disbelief.

"You haven't seen the damage that machine did to the reverse world!" Alvin protested, jumping to his feet and glaring: almost angry when Logan had finished speaking. "People here hardly know it exists, but the reverse world is important! It supports ours! Without it there's no us! If you turn it on again…"

"How is that even possible?" Izzy asked, much calmer. She only seemed confused by what Logan had said, not as though she were about to hit her. Alvin was calming down though. The younger mew had moved away from Alvin, taking several steps back until she felt the wall of the aircraft behind her. But she relaxed as Alvin did, watching as the young man (Not really a trainer now that he had released Sparks) pulled a pinecone from his pocket and ran his fingers over it. The motion seemed to calm him even as Isabella went on. "The machine was built all over the earth billions and billions of years ago, but it's been so long almost all of it has been worn away to nothing. You said it yourself: there are mountains where parts of the machine used to be: That thing was built to change the whole _universe_. We can't just turn it on and expect it to work."

Logan was hardly put off, though. "What the early mew did was supposed to be impossible. They were trying to rewrite the laws of a universe from within. That's not exactly easy. I have no idea how they did it, except that I know they didn't do a very good job. What they built was unstable… it did a great deal of damage, like you said Alvin. Think of it like this: The exarchs spent all this effort and energy and what they ended up doing was creating an extremely unstable system. It's like… potential energy. Water 'wants' to flow downhill, just like atoms 'want' to decay into lighter ones over time. The Exarchs pushed a huge bolder up a hill. They did all the hard work getting it there, and it /was/ really hard. They got it to balance at the top, but only out of sheer, awful bad luck. Still, we don't _need_ all of the machine. Which is good, because most of it's eroded into complete elemental disillusion by now, and we could never identify what matter had been a part of it to begin with let alone what the machine once looked like. All we need to do now is get enough of the machine running to give that boulder the smallest, tiniest push… and it'll roll downhill all on its own."

Of course everything she said was a gross oversimplification, but… they all knew none of it was literal, so she didn't waste any effort explaining that. "What we're doing has three pieces, and both will need to be found. First is the easiest: The Central Control Unit. We actually know exactly where it is: You've even used it before, Alvin. Do you remember David's gate? The Rockets were using it for their own reasons, but we don't need to worry about them. It's still buried in the rubble of that base, and we will know exactly where to go when we're ready for it. One of the worldships will need to go there once we've found and taken care of our other objectives, and upload our instructions to it. That part might be a little difficult, since the only one who might've known how to compose them is dead now…" She trailed off a moment, unable to stop her voice from faltering as she pictured the Core of the Ephriam again, and his corpse: an unfathomable torrent of energy pouring down through the blade whose maker she feared.

"But that's not even our biggest concern, not really. Because the Central Control Unit needs to have something to operate. I know comparatively little about how the entire ladder was constructed, but I know it had several hundred of these bus-sized objects that operated in tandem on an input of pure antimatter. The closest translation is a Quantum Lens, so let's call them that. I'm sure of it: We only need one Lens. I don't have a clue where we could get one."

"The last piece we need should be obvious: Not even the worldships are equipped to produce Antimater. The amounts we would need would take months to collect even if we had the apparatus installed to collect them as they formed around the singularities we use. I've thought about designing something… but the volumes we're talking about really are staggering. Fortunately, we're not the first who have needed Antimatter for fuel like this… Maybe you've heard of Pokelantis, maybe you haven't."

"Pokelantis… is a complicated issue, but the important thing right now is that the humans that built it used much of the same technology that had been used eons earlier to build the Ladder. They had numbers my kind didn't, and lacked our now healthy fear. They were… the story isn't a happy one. But it doesn't matter now. The important thing is that their city was built not long ago… humans after all are fairly recent when you examine the geologic scale of time all of this happens. Built with legendary technology, their city will have easily remained functional this long. It should be a simple matter of configuring it for our needs… if we can find it. That's more complicated… but that is why we need to go to Altomare."

"There's another legendary that has been looking for Pokelantis for a long time now. I don't really understand why, but again it doesn't matter. Her name is Also… she's very difficult to find, but she has ignored our rules about tampering with human society significantly longer than the rest of us have. Altomare is the only place I know she has a presence I can find: she has a city she rules but locating someone in it with actual connections to her would take more time than we have." She glanced briefly at a flashing system's clock on a nearby panel. "My best guess is we have three days before the Exarchs arrive. I'm sure you see how much harder it will be to find everything we need once they actually /get/ here."

Her companions had remained silent during that long and complicated explanation of Logan's convoluted plan. Izzy, who evidently did not know how to make herself human, settled for curling up on Alvin's lap… though she wasn't really sure if it counted with the privacy filter. If they had more time to waste, she might have asked why Alvin was bothering to wear it at all. Who did he think he was hiding himself from? What did he think he was accomplishing? But she didn't ask, and when he was quite sure she had finished speaking, Alvin spoke up, stroking Izzy as he did so. "We'll need to split up. You seem to know this Also person… so you can be the one to deal with her. Hopefully she's very close to finding Pokelantis… Izzy and I will work on finding a lens. Could you tell me a little more about what they look like? I have a friend who might be able to help us find one… he would have an awful lot more than three days to work with."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Miya had half a mind to swear loudly as she reappeared, holding the evil knife with her mind and looking around in all directions. Logan had said she was being sent to Sabrina, and she was not disappointed. Miya did not keep tabs of the former Gym-leader: frankly she was surprised when she first heard Logan say the name. Was it the same Sabrina that had been battling trainers when she herself was young enough to be eligible for the junior league? How old would that make the woman anyway… a hundred? More? Of course, it could be she'd changed into a pokemon by now, or an AI… but somehow she doubted either. Sabrina had been even more of a proponent of humanity than her 'mother'; so much more that she had refused to allow herself to be transformed.

Miya had hardly been having the best day so far. She'd seen a hundred murdered guards, the Eldest… but being in the center of a city that'd been left to its own devices in the midst of the most severe outbreak definitely took the top spot for most horrible thing that day. The air was thick with the smells of an ongoing battle… which were both the most horrible and least horrible thing about it. An ongoing battle meant there were survivors. She was fortunate that Logan had positioned her near her destination: She wasn't sure she could keep this knife in her possession and stay hidden from the infested at the same time.

The Saffron City Gym hadn't received a trainer in at least a year, but it still looked exactly as it had from the one time Miya had actually been to visit. A central structure was surrounded by tentlike constructions of concrete, descending to the structural support columns they really were. Miya doubted this fence had been there the last time trainers had visited though, a fence built of trucks and automobiles welded together with huge plates of scrap. There was one opening in the fence, obviously meant to attract all invested so as to avoid damage to the rest of the fence. Even from high up in the air she could see the obvious kill-zone: A pair of machine gun embankments occasionally giving off short bursts of yellow. There were other colors too, colors Miya suspected to be pokemon attacks. This suspicion was confirmed as she began to descend through the smoke and the haze, and as she did the shouts became clearer to her.

She was surprised that these shouts were mental and not physical, short bursts of telepathy. Then she remembered what sort of gym this had been, and it surprised her quite a bit less. "Second gun, open fire!" Someone called, then almost immediately. "Cease fire, targets down!" Pause. "Targets approaching your sector, Bronzong, hit them with a Flash Cannon!" Then bright white somewhere closer to the guns and the barbed wire as another target went down. The baby mew's eyes widened in horror as she got closer. There wasn't just a crowd moving into the open gateway. She had no way of estimating their numbers. Were they hundreds? Thousands? Millions? They seemed to stretch backward from the shelter as far as the eye could see, pressing closely together, shoving and fighting at one another to get to the gate as quickly as they could. The greatest danger Miya could see was the sheer mass of corpses… if it got much higher, the infested would easily be able to climb over the fence from sides that weren't being watched by a pair of heavy mounted guns.

That problem seemed to be dealt with as well, as she heard the next command. "Cease fire, everyone! Alakazam… clear the aisle with a Psychic!" There were two Miya could see, two yellow shapes that moved forward together in disciplined formation and with timed gestures caused the huge wall of corpses to lift high up into the air, raining down upon the crowd further back and leaving the area clear for the slaughter to commence anew.

Miya inclined her descent towards the rows of large tents set up within the fence, lowering herself into a large opening where a sort of courtyard had been set up. Many of the "soldiers" were relaxing here, though as she got closer, Miya saw they were actually wearing modified versions of the ceremonial wear that the workers in Sabrina's gym had worn. A few had pokemon with them, several had firearms on their person in one place or another, and a very few were wearing gas-masks. Most were not though, which surprised Miya most of all. The one thing these people had in common was that they were all _human_, no Proto-humans at all, and few inoculated with their glittering implants.

"I need to see Sabrina!" She announced as she reached their head level, speaking to nobody in particular. Seeing the slaughter had not changed her attitude… she was Miya, and what she had was important! They should do what she said.

She was not disappointed. An older man stepped towards her, his face largely obscured by a short length of white beard. He bowed, hands together in front of him as he did so. "Welcome, firstborn." Many of those around them had stopped to stare, all conversations (verbal and otherwise) coming to a standstill. "Our leader was expecting you. Come with me." He turned towards the Gym, setting a slow pace in that direction. Miya followed him. She wasn't so pleased by the remarks she heard all around her, as she realized the looks she felt on her back were far from friendly. "You left us to die!" ran the thought in so many minds. "Abandoned us!" Said others. She gritted her teeth, tuning them out. No more… she couldn't hear those words anymore, especially since she realized how right they were.

She reached the door, where the largest tent of all had been set up. Thick plastic sheets and bright red biohazard logos marked the edge of the decontamination chamber. An armed guard stepped forward as they approached. "Master Franklin." He said, lowering this arm after a moment. "Will you be taking this… guest… inside as well?"

The old man nodded, and though the solider seemed to be expecting it, he did not elaborate further. After a pause, he moved out of the way, letting them into the small tent. Miya closed her eyes and her mouth together as thick decontaminant mist sprayed all over her from all directions. It went on for too long though… and she took some in, coughed, and took in more, all the while the man stood still in his simple robes, eyes closed as well. After another second there was a flash of white light, and an automatic door that she recognized to be the true front entrance to the gym slid open.

Miya had never seen these wide open halls before, as she had never actually been inside the gym. They made the sounds of battle, the firing of machine-guns and of pokemon attacks… seem to echo and blur together, until the struggle for survival outside became the mere crash of distant waves. So the infested had broken against the rock of this place's defenses, and so it would continue to break. How long had this place already held out without aid? How much longer would it endure?

They climbed a set of stairs, passed through hallways thick with sleeping sick and wounded, until they reached a small stone door-shape set into the wall. Door shape, because it was actually just stone, with no means to move it except that it was separate from the metal around it. "I am told the firstborn have some of the greatest psychic powers on earth." Master Franklin said, turning to face Miya with a thin smile crossing his lips. "Why don't you open the door. It doesn't look it, but it's actually been made from solid lead: I couldn't move it if I wanted to. Only our Leader can move it by herself… but surely a _legendary_ has the strength! Unless… you think you need my help."

Miya moved swiftly past him, dropping the knife to the ground. The thing turned swiftly downward, much faster than it should, and fell straight through the metal floor as though sliding through butter, stopping only when it reached the hilt. Miya did not see. Without a word to the man she straightened, concentrating all her power on the door and willing it to move. Energy surged around its outline, coursing and burning the air with Miya's strongest psychic attack ever. Small cracks appeared on the rock's surface, but otherwise… it did not budge. She attacked it several times, jerking forward towards it each time, and with less and less notable effect each successive time.

Eventually she collapsed exhausted to the floor, panting and utterly defeated. "Nobody could move a door like that." She said, eyes closed in shame. But she was only a child… right? Of course she couldn't do it!

"You would not make as one of Sabrina's pupils, I fear." He said, somewhat quietly. "You didn't even read the riddle, did you?" Miya hadn't. Curiously, she lifted a little shakily back into the air, and hovered over to the door. What she saw was a circle, with arrows pointing towards a sun at the top of the circle and a moon at the bottom. The arrows only pointed in one direction, making the whole thing look like it was spinning. Then she saw the way the top of the door was rounded, and just how flat the door was around it, polished stone all the way. Almost as if…

She pushed again. She had much less force behind her this time, but this time she was pushing only on the very edge, as straight as she could. This time the stone began to give way at once, spinning sideways until it seemed to balance in the center, leaving a doorway to squeeze through. The old man's smile faded, though he hardly looked disappointed. "Perhaps you would have made a decent student after all." He said, gesturing to the knife. "Please take /that/ in with you. I will not accompany you… our Leader does not take visitors normally, and none of us are permitted to see her anymore. I guess I wouldn't want visitors if I was as old as she is…" He moved suddenly up to Miya, his face mere inches away, looking as threatening as any human could. He glowered, unseen force hovering behind his eyes. "Do not do anything sudden or frightening. Our Leader has not lead for a decade, but… that she continues to live gives us all courage. If you do anything to change that…" And he sighed, looking down. "You will have doomed us all more thoroughly than your kind already have. Please leave us this one kindness." That was it. He turned and walked away, leaving Miya alone as she picked the dagger out of the floor and moved through the opening.

Miya hesitated at the threshold, unmoving for a time as she considered what might be waiting for her. What she expected was a corpse: perhaps Sabrina had been dead for some time. Of course the dead didn't take visitors! But… Franklin had explicitly said she was alive. For a moment she had a horrible image of, say, a Yamask waiting in Sabrina's place. That only made her feel guilty: Sabrina was the greatest physic in the world, and at best time was killing her slowly. Miya herself did not feel the pressures of time anymore, and that hardly seemed fair. This logic, of course, betrayed how fundamentally ignorant she was about Sabrina.

The door slammed closed behind her, so fast that it nearly shut on her tail. The room beyond had been made into a small zen-garden, endless looping curves twisting and turning around a group of spaced rocks and boulders. The ceiling was polished glass, meaning the garden was blazingly bright, so bright it hurt Miya's eyes and she had to avoid opening them too far.

In the center of the garden was a thickly robed figure, hunched and silent. Miya could sense nothing from this person's mind as she approached, nothing at all except for a raspy breathing every twenty seconds or so. Her sensitive ears could even hear the woman's heartbeat, so slow she was either dying or deep in meditation. Somehow she knew which it was. So she _was_ alive. She didn't know if this relieved her or frightened her. She settled on relief… it meant she could deliver the Eldest's dying message. It meant she could live up to her mother's expectations. Miya released the knife again, letting it sink swiftly into the side of one of the boulders, stopping at the hilt as it had the last time she dropped it.

She landed on her hind legs in front of where she assumed was the front, lowering her head respectfully to this ancient individual. Somehow she felt closer to the spirit world than she did in the presence of legendaries twice this Woman's age. It wasn't just a matter of years, but how close the individuals were to death, she figured. Somehow, without knowing how she knew it, Miya was sure that it was only Sabrina's force of will that kept her going, and that at any moment she could simply let go and she would fade within minutes.

She tried to remember what words were expected of her, but they all choked in her throat, so instead she squawked out a stream of catlike mews "'." Hardly what she hoped for. Her ears drooped as she realized how stupid she must sound. There was a pause, so long that Miya began to relax, hoping that Sabrina had not understood her. Perhaps her ability to speak pokemon had been exaggerated? Or maybe she was just too deep in meditation to hear.

That hope proved to be in vain as the woman spoke. Miya doubted that she could have spoken vocally if she wanted to. Her organs were probably atrophied or something. As Miya watched, the woman reached up with an impossibly unsteady hand, pulling the hood off of her face. She couldn't help but look away… hugely sunk blue eyes peered out at her from wrinkles and folds within folds, looking deeply sad. What little hair was left was white and wispy, like the mist surrounding the face of a ghost. The voice betrayed none of the weakness of the body. It did not shake as her arms did and it showed none of the halting insecurity of senility. _'I had a vision of your arrival.' _Her voice was so sad Miya almost cried just to hear it. There was so much pain there, like a victory won at a cost far too high to be worth it. '_I told Terah decades ago this would happen, but he did not believe me. He told me my logic was too human, and I told him that was exactly why I was right.' _There was confusion plastered on Miya's face… so Sabrina went on. '_Do you know what I told him would happen? That he would need to die, and I would be left behind to fill his place.' _She sighed, a real and physical sound that rattled in her old lungs. '_I think he knew. Love, I think, is also a kind of psychic power…'_

This was as long as she could sit silent. "What are we going to do, Sabrina?" She asked, rather bluntly. "The Eldest is dead, and he was so powerful… we needed him! We'll never win without his strength… please, you've got to take his place! None of the others could do it… some of them are too mean, some of them are too soft, but none of them understand as much as you. Even if you're only human…"

Another long pause, which Miya did not understand since Sabrina wasn't talking vocally anyways. Clearly her mind had the strength for this conversation, so why did she take so much time to think? _'I have visions of the future sometimes.'_ She said, after a painfully long delay for the impatient Miya. '_I saw this happening and Terah did not believe me. He said that all I saw was one probabe future. Maybe that's true. I've seen myself defeating enough trainers who ended up winning.'_ Another sigh. '_Not this time, though. I only wanted to die in peace. But no… there is no rest.'_ Miya could never have guessed what the woman did next: She stood. Granted it was a shaky stance, shakier than anything Miya had ever seen. She was a shriveled skeleton of a woman, and it hurt just to watch her move. But move she did, perhaps under as much psionic influence as there was physical. She walked with painful slowness, one foot shakily in front of the other as she crossed the room to the polished metallic gong set into the wall. She did not speak as she moved: As though doing so would have cost her concentration too much, and she would have simply dropped dead.

She never made it to her destination. As she neared it, Miya felt herself shiver inwardly, eyes avoiding the spot in the air near one of the large boulders where dark fire charred and twisted at nothing. Not for long though. The figure left behind caused her to whimper and move aside, even as he spoke. Now that she saw him up this close, Miya had to admit she could see why so many others of her species were more interested in him than the Eldest. Fear stopped her from saying anything… and there was something to be said for that too.

"You don't need to use that." He said, landing deftly atop the boulder and watching Sabrina impassively. He did not seem to even see Miya there, or if he did, he didn't care. This was exactly as she wanted it, staying as close to the wall as she could. "I was afraid that even with all your powers you would not survive much longer. Fate has been kind to send this mew to you with bad news." Of course, Miya wanted to protest. Mewtwo? What on earth could he be doing here? Sabrina had some sort of relationship with him? In retrospect she supposed they had somewhat in common. Both were powerful psychics who did what they could to protect people they deemed deserving. Sabrina obviously had been working much more publicly at it than Mewtwo. "Are you ready? The sooner we start the sooner we…"

Sabrina interrupted him. '_You know I won't be-'_

Mewtwo sounded almost impatient. It was strange to even _imagine_ him excited about something, but here he was, tail held much higher in the air than normal. Almost as though he had been preparing for this for some time, which was probably true. "Yes, Sabrina. I'm not _him. _I was thinking of your power. With two of us, we will be a force to be reckoned with. I wish he was alive so I could see his face."

Miya felt suddenly hurt, betrayed, and she barely understood why. She felt Sabrina's eyes on her for a moment, and her voice in her head. Somehow she knew she was being spoken to privately, that Mewtwo could not hear. '_This is why I waited. I swore to him when I was a child I would never be a mew… I know how much this would have hurt him if he were alive. I couldn't let that happen… so I waited.'_

But she didn't hear anything else, because at that point Mewtwo had begun whatever complicated process he had prepared for. A gesture lifted Sabrina into the air and removed her robe, which fell to the ground like a discarded glove. She looked away, screwing up her eyes as she did so. The Gym Leader was so astoundingly old it seemed as though doing any of this would surely kill her… Mewtwo would never do that… would he? She watched in awe as Mewtwo took the years away, as Sabrina's skin got its life back, her white hair went dark blue, growing long and vibrant as the winkles vanished. For an instant, it seemed as though Mewtwo had recreated the Gym Leader who thousands of trainers had faced in order to obtain a Marsh Badge.

Then, like a cloud fleeing before the sun, the moment passed, and Sabrina began to change. Short grey fur began to grow, even as a tail formed between her legs, swelling and bulging behind her as skin went faintly green, expanding as organs slowly shifted downward with her center of gravity. Much of her general shape remained the same, even as she seemed to shrink, thin armor plates slowly expanding down from her shoulders and covering what little was left of her breasts. Feline features familiar to Miya from her own species began to develop, as ordinary humanity gave way almost completely to what Mewtwo was creating, though Miya sensed a great deal of power flowing between them, almost as though Sabrina was working just as hard as Mewtwo at this. She watched the familiar second spineal column develop and thicken, ears shifting upward along the side of her head as arms became bony and thin.

The transformation complete, Mewtwo released this copy, who landed deftly on the ground, scattering the pattern of the garden. There was no period of lack-of-coordination, though sweat from when she had still been human coated her body, making her fur stick down a little. Looking at them both, Miya saw the second mewtwo ever… would this mean Mewtwo would need a proper name now? Sabrina was smaller by several inches, her skin was green instead of purple, and her eyes deep blue. But in every other way, she was unmistakably another mewtwo. Barely controlled energy burned along her body, momentarily illuminating her deep blue as the full force of it hit her. Was this what Sabrina had in mind for replacing the Eldest: Becoming even stronger? She had to admit, the idea of another mewtwo in the world did much to comfort her in the odds of the upcoming war, particularly considering the track-record of the one they already had.

"How do you feel?" She heard him ask, an expression of pride shining in his face for what she suspected was the first time ever. Mewtwo had always attracted mew to him, for social as well as physical reasons. But that there would ever be _another_ one… Miya wondered if even he had suspected it would happen. As far as she knew none of those who had mated with him had found success: His offspring were weak and sickly and died stillborn without even awakening in the womb. But if there was anyone who could control the power that came with being what he was, it was Sabrina. Perfectly disciplined, and about as good as they came. Or… at least disciplined. Miya remembered absently that Sabrina herself had a bit of history with Rocket, but… that hardly seemed important now.

"I used to say that psychic power isn't something a few people have. Everyone has psychic power, they just don't realize it. The people defending this gym… had no gifts when I found them. I saw potential… and after months and years of practice, I refined that potential into power. This…" Miya saw blackness coil around one of Sabrina's three-fingered hands. "This is dangerous. This power is… intoxicating." And that was exactly as she sounded, as though she were taking a long swig from some priceless vintage. "Your focus is admirable."

Mewtwo seemed satisfied with that remark. "I'll be waiting for you on New Island. Bring your people there: We will teach these so-called Exarchs to fear our power." And then he was gone, out like a light that had never been there, leaving the two of them alone.

Sabrina did not pause long. She had not known Miya, after all, and had few words for her. But she had noticed the knife, at least now that her body wasn't crumbling to dust around her. "That blade's owner will be missing it." She said. "Alamos town. Look for the garden." And that was it. She too left, though it was half-walking, half-hovering, slamming the stone slab shut behind her and leaving Miya to contemplate the rocks in the crimson light of the setting sun.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: I really am sorry for as long as it took to write this chapter. I've been away on vacation and perhaps understandably I did not feel too much like writing while vacationing. Niagra might not be expensive, but man those falls were awesome. Company was pretty cool too. But I'm back now and ready to buckle down for the last third of this story or so. I don't have any exact numbers on how many chapters remain, but it is not too especially large a number. As always, reviews are appreciated and greatly speed the writing of a future chapter.

Without further adeu, last chapter's REVIEW RESPONSES!

AmadeuS: I'm really glad you think so! Of course I would advise anyone who enjoys this story to go back and take a look at some of the other stuff I've written for more of the same. Although not as newly written means my skills weren't what they are now, but… I'm sorry about how confusing things were earlier in the story. That's why I stopped traveling through time now, didn't want to confuse anymore people. Yeah, I guess I did say that this would be my last story… but then again, I thought MM would be my last fanfiction too, so who knows. Maybe there will be more someday. Surely no more novels, though. If there's anything else, it'd probably be a oneshot.

KA: I always liked to think I had bigger plans than simply "big bad guys" for the exarchs, and now people are finally seeing some of them. I know my grammar's not quite perfect… if you ever see specific examples during the reading of a future chapter, copying them directly into your rewiew would be helpful so I can find and fix them. Guess I… probably should've told you that before now, huh… oh well…

DPL: Ahh always with the big reviews. I'm glad none of them are longer than the chapter these days. Yeah, the Eldest is gone now. I like to think he was a pretty good guy overall, for his flaws. He was a product of his culture but I like to think he did some good things within those boundries. As far as the bunker goes… it does seem pretty unlikely it will be anything more than mentioned now that Jamie has showed herself to be… something… You're right about those typos. I wonder if I'll be too lazy to fix them. I hope this chapter you just read was more satisfying than this one. I like to think every chapter is equally good, but… that doesn't mean each one will be equally interesting to each person.

ShadowVee: I greatly enjoyed writing both of those sections so I'm glad that at least somebody like them. Especially the rather abstract one with Logan in the Void. I don't think writing like that often makes an apperance in pokemon stories, so I thought it was somewhat of a welcome change. I'm sorry I haven't sent you a PM before now… I will soon, I promise! Being on vacation was not conducive to productivity. As vacations rarely are.


	13. Finding and Losing

Chapter 12: "Finding and Losing"

Logan did not have long to wait once she arrived in Altomare. The city was one of the few that had been chosen to act as bases of operation for the worldships, and as such the streets were clear of debris and conflict as she arrived. Eerily clear, in fact. The city's self-defense device was running 24-7 these days, on cleaner and more renewable power than the souls of dead legendaries, and it seemed the fear had adversely affected many of the city's current residents. Less than a third of those living in the city had been its original inhabitants when the war began. It was one of those she searched for now, though not one of the human ones.

She had never met one before, but finding the city's only current resident Latios was not a difficult task. If anything, he had found her. She was impressed with how quickly he'd picked her out from the small crowd moving through the city's manufacturing district, although she suspected that his older and more experienced mate had more to do with that than he did. Logan's first Latios proved to be playful to the point of being troublesome. The longer she chased him through the empty streets, zooming around at speeds that would've turned either of them to unrecognizable goo if they hit anything, the more her frustration grew.

She had to admit; it had been her fault at first. Understanding the piping squeaks that were half bird and half whale were not easy, especially when she had been in such a hurry. She hadn't been paying complete attention, and she'd let it slip by. Something to do with fire maybe? She couldn't rightly say. When she accidentally let slip she didn't know his name, he'd run away, and thus began their game. It might've been fun even, if it weren't for how much of a hurry she was in. The problem was that she _was _in a hurry, a desperate hurry painfully aware of how little time she had.

Still, the Latios was her only lead, and with his more responsible mate nowhere to be seen, she was helplessly at his mercy, despite all her pleading. She suspected his age had something to do with how little mind he paid her, and how protected his city had been. The war to these people was something far distant, something that might have had devastating effects on people they knew but probably little on themselves. They were here, after all. A protected city far from the ravages of the soulphage. The eye of a hurricane would soon move on though, and all the sooner for the chase.

Eventually they did reach their destination though, a small flat-bottomed research vessel a handful of miles out to sea. She could not be sure if her quarry had fled here by accident or with the genuine intent of taking her to where she had insisted she needed to be, but she supposed it didn't matter. She recognized the subject of her searching instantly, though she was quite surprised it lacked more substantial protection. The ship had several decks, and moved at full steam towards the open sea. Hell, it was even flying Also's flag, a defiant mixture of modern symbology and the atlantean glyphs that modern archeologists called Unown.

As she neared the ship, Logan was painfully aware of a faint red dot on her chest, very much in spite of how invisible she was. It wasn't difficult to trace the trajectory back to a sniper aboard the ship, perched in an upper deck in active camouflage of his own. She wasn't actually afraid he would actually fire though, and sure enough no bullets flew toward her as she got close. She made a mental note to bring Jamie to meet them when the war was over... if nothing else, the other psycic types were kindred spirits.

He stopped near the edge of the deck, making those familiar sounds halfway between a pigeon and a whale. As she watched from a safe distance, invisible but not unseen, a woman in her mid to late thirties stepped out from among a small crowd, stroking the pokemon's head gently with one gloved hand. The woman was uniformed, as were most of them, brown and plain and unremarkable, but Logan recognized her at once. Maybe it was the way the Latios chose her to approach between all the other identical brown uniforms on the deck. That, or maybe it was the subtle disruption of space that caused everything to look distorted to the senses of a legendary. For a moment, she was glad that it had never come to war with Also and her so-called "Oblates", a much feared and much discussed group of legendaries that had been created and raised in a "disturbingly" human manner.

Somehow she thought that Mewtwo must be no friend of these people. Years or decades breathing perfluorocarbons in a two-meter suspension tank with electrodes in your brain doubtless brought unhappy memories. Also alone had been created according to ordinary principals, and so hatred concentrated greatest on her. Logan had never met her, wouldn't have dared to approach her if the Eldest was still alive. But it was under his instruction she had come…

"You aren't going to stay up there all day, are you sister?" That was the woman's voice. Also… was talking to her! "Come down and join me for tea. Unless you have somewhere better to be, but then I can't imagine why you would have come all the way out here." She removed her hat, squinting up at Logan hanging over the ocean, and waiting for her reply.

She was painfully aware of all the eyes on her now, all except for the Latios. He was already moving away, satisfied that he had both done his duty and had more than his fair share of fun in the process. The mew was left to approach the boat on her own, fur dusted with the fine spray that rushed upward from the hydrofoil. She landed on the deck in civilian clothes, as old as she could manage without complete fabrication. She felt more than a little out of place, wrong side of twenty with all those harsh eyes. Not hatred though, except perhaps for a few exceptions she had little doubt were human. Suspicion, distrust, maybe. But some were bored, some disinterested, and a few genuinely curious. Also was one of the latter, her arms surveying the young mew's human transformation somewhere between impressed and bored. That was the exact expression she had a few minutes later, within a room of polarized glass on the top deck. There were plenty of chairs and couches and sofas up here, and she thought it odd so many of them were empty. But empty they were. Also hadn't even invited any of the 'Oblates' inside. This had surprised even them, but once Also spoke she knew why the privacy.

"Maybe Terah sent you to explain why I've had to kill three of my own oblates in as many months." There was a measure of accusation in her voice, though not much. Nevertheless, her eyes were icy cold. "What he did during the meeting cost me twenty-three good men. If he's done something to the oblates… not facing us fairly-"

"The Eldest is dead." Logan interrupted. She didn't have the time to be a part of Also's rivalry with the old mew. Two competing schools of thought, both doomed to die if she did not complete her mission successfully. "I guess nobody told you. I don't think he's done anything to your… people… he's been way too busy. We're all too busy to do something like that." Then she finally processed what Also had actually said, and her mouth fell open. "Wait, you had to kill them? You…" Her mind jumped abruptly to Jamie, tossing and turning in constant nightmares. "Why?"

The older woman's face was a mask of emotion. "Through no fault of their own." Also said, before adding. "The void took them. Always started the same way... nightmares. Eventually they can't sleep, then they don't want to. Then..." She trailed off, but Logan did not need to hear the rest. "The Eldest has used his own inaction as a weapon against me in the past. If he used it to kill my people, it will mean war when this is all over. Assuming there's anything left to fight over. Most of the oblates are feeling the nightmares now. It's only a matter of time."

Logan shook her head immediately. "No, it wasn't him." She felt sick, and despite her hatred of sea-travel she had no doubt of the cause. "I know, because the same thing is happening to my daughter." She proceeded to describe Jamie's symptoms, the nature of the nightmares and how she had responded to them (or tried).

"I attempted something similar. I programed the same simulation I used to train them to systematically eliminate all dreaming associated with negative emotions. It only made things worse... do you have any idea what might be causing it?" She smiled then, as though the question itself was a joke. "You're so young... forgive me for saying so Logan, but I know a great deal more than you. Every nation you know was just an idea in the days I was born. Much of the technology you grew up taking for granted was developed for the war that tore apart the world when I lived. Let my asking speak of my desperation for a solution."

Logan wished she had an answer. She'd been taught for almost a hundred years that this woman was everything that was evil in the world. Not the void, but almost as bad. Now she would've given anything if she had a cure. Possibly because it would be the same sort of cure Jamie herself would need... "All I can tell you is what the Eldest told me." Had it not been for the seriousness of the situation, she might've spoken slowly and as deeply as she could, imitating his voice as poorly as she could. But these were lives, and she wouldn't dare."Jamie was too weak when she was born. An accident created her... an accident I could've prevented if I'd been stronger and wiser. Millions died in that accident, and a generation later she was almost another casualty. That was what the Eldest wanted. He told me that she was better off that way. That to save her was worse than killing her. I thought he was being stupid."

She took a sip from the tea, using the delay to fight back her tears. She might be talking about Jamie, but it wasn't her face she saw as she thought back to the Eldest's words. It was then that she remembered despite the act she was putting on, the person she was speaking to knew full well what she was, and there was no sense limiting herself to purely physical communication. So she showed Also the memory.

It was much faster than explaining. The Eldest's words came rushing back then, as Also replayed the memory herself. "'It's physically possible, yes… but no mew like that is fit to survive. Being unable to protect yourself from gravity also means you are unable to survive certain… non-physical influences. You've never felt them… while you were human your mind was too feeble for them to be interested, and I was sure you would be strong enough as a mew before I changed you. It would be simple to maintain her body, but I could not protect her mind. Maybe she would have learned enough to live for awhile… I assure you, even if she did, the result would eventually be horrible. Then not just her body would have died… but her soul as well. At least this way she's kept one of them intact.'

"When I found Jamie, I was old enough to disobey, so I did. But I think the Eldest may've been right. It seems your Oblates and my daughter have the same problem. Hopefully the same solution." She set her glass down as dramatically as she could. "I hope you're close to Atlantis, because I need about a quadrillion tons of anti-mater in less than a week and I don't know anywhere else to find it."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jamie was far from happy to see so much of the inside of a cell, but for a time that was all she saw. No contact came for her, not even David to keep her informed of what was happening. She wondered why they might be holding her at all, and briefly considered attempting to escape, but not for long. Even if she could fight her way out, what good would it do her? She couldn't fight other legendaries, least of all David. David might be one of the youngest, but she was quickly becoming one of the most powerful: No matter what else she knew she could not fight that mew, or any of the others that served her.

David came soon enough, looking more panicked than Jamie had ever seen her. She appeared quite covertly, the sensors simultaneously deactivating as she did so. Jamie looked up from where she rested on a bed of straw and moss, catching David's fear almost as soon as she felt it. "We don't have much time." The other mew said, lifting Jamie into the air. She was practically tripping over her own tail to get started, which did little to comfort the younger of the pair. "Prefect heard about your condition. I don't know how, but… he's ordered you extirpated immediately. Don't worry! I intend to disobey. This alliance was precarious to begin-with… but I think he knew what I was planning, because there's an entire legion of praetorian guards a few decks up and they'll be here to do it themselves any moment. You have to go. You and the plusle and the minun… he's ordered them all killed. I don't know what I'll… maybe make it look like you escaped, or… no time. You need to hide."

Jamie wanted to talk, wanted to protest, to ask what David intended to do about the legion of Praetorian that would discover her missing. There wasn't even time for her to express all the anger of her capture, and the greater frustration at being left alone despite all she knew. Jamie had the /cure/! Didn't that matter to anyone? And now she was going to hide? Wherever they were sending her, she had little doubt that a worldship was safer, praetorian guards or no. She'd been keeping track. There were three days left until the Exarchs arrived. What good would her stealth do her then?

"Something unobtrusive, but not helpless. Something that won't eat that plusle and the minun if you get hungry. Send you down as refugees to the largest secure city. If you aren't safe in goldenrod, you aren't safe anywhere. No time to fake IDs, you're on your own for those." David did not ask her permission: She felt the alterations to her body happening so fast she could barely keep them straight. One moment peace, the next… her size changed little, but her tail was shorter. Her fur was grey tipped and ruffled with white. Feline features faded, replaced with rodent counterparts: Just like that, where a mew had floated, now a simple Minccino stepped gently onto the ground, bewildered and breathing sharply from the transition.

"I'm sorry about this, Jamie. I wish I had the time to help you with your problem. Time to figure out what's wrong and put that cure to good use. But time is something few of us have in reserve." CRACK, spinning dizziness, and tightly shut eyes, and Jamie was somewhere in the bushes beside a trio of familiar shapes. They were not silent for long.

"Why are we on the ground again?" She couldn't tell which voice had spoken, which surprised her a great deal considering the size of her ears. A few moments later the little rodents had surrounded her, somehow sensing that she might have the answers. "You… do you know how we got here? It felt like being released, only… down."

Jamie nodded slowly, reluctantly raising her eyes to the urgent-looking pair of lupines. "It was this or die. I had every intention of bringing you to the authorities… but they liked the idea less than I hoped they would." She frowned, then abruptly reached out and hugged them both. "I'm sorry, Adam, Sam. It's all my fault this happened. If you hadn't come with me, they might have seen you as more a kindness than a threat." That quiet, evil-sounding voice in the back of her mind was patient and quiet in its whispers, as it said "_And if you hadn't found me, they wouldn't have wanted to kill me either."_ But she didn't say that, not as she broke away, and certainly not as the plusle and minun started to cry.

"Y-you mean…" Adam squeaked. "We're stuck down here? No shelter? No protection from the monsters? Maybe it would've been better if we stayed up there and let _them _kill us. At least they'd be quick about it."

Samantha sparked threateningly at Adam's skepticism, but Jamie could hardly blame him. She felt much the same way he did… but she would have to be strong. Not for herself… she didn't really deserve to be alive, not in her mind. But for Logan: Her mother hadn't worked for three decades so that she could just keel over and let herself die. And for Miya… her sometimes competitive but always loving in the end sister. Her and a dozen other new friends she had made since leaving humanity behind. "See those lights?" Jamie said, gesturing with a forepaw off into the distance. "I bet that's the main gate. Let's go… we'll be plenty safe once we're inside."

The gate proved to only be a few dozen meters away, though they slowed greatly as they passed out of the trees. Lumine was the hardest to coax from the brush onto the path leading into the city: Rough gravel and harsh spotlights and weapons constantly trained on them.

"We have to go in!" Adam urged the shivering Emolga, quivering and shaking her head, eyes closed. "There are monsters in the woods, but we'll be safe once we get past those walls. All those humans are here to /help/ us! They're here to keep the monsters out!"

Samantha stepped in, helping Adam lift Lumine to her feet. "They won't hurt us, we promise. And if you don't trust us… you can ask the mew."

Lumine turned her eyes immediately on Jamie, who looked nothing like a mew just now. Jamie's idea of who wanted to hurt her had seen more than a little adjustment, but she nodded anyway. "Absolutely. They're there to stop voidspawn from getting in, and we don't look like them! We'll all go in together… pokemon of different species like that, they'll know we're special, and I'm sure we'll be in warm beds before we know it."

Well she was half right. Nobody shot them as they moved slowly up the walkway, spotlights following them all the way to the gate. It didn't open, but a smaller entrance to one side did, probably meant specifically for pokemon by the way a smattering of pokechow was dispensed inside. It worked brilliantly with Lumine, who darted immediately inside. Jamie watched with barely restrained giggling as Adam and Sam followed her, rushing so there would be some left for them, but still straining so they didn't _look_ like they were rushing. Jamie followed last, and was barely through the doorway before it slid closed, a wave of air ruffling her fur as it did.

Jamie was not hungry, so she didn't fight over what little food they'd been given to entice them inside. The whole thing seemed a little patronizing to her, and more than a little insulting. After all, pokemon coming to the city would have to brave the dangerous walkway: Obviously they had the intelligence not to need motivating with treats like somebody's pet growlithe.

Another voice greeted them as Lumine finished jostling with Sam and Adam for what little food they'd been given. It was a pokemon's voice, bright and bubbly and female. Jamie saw no implant as she studied the Blissey's round form. The pokemon were highly intelligent and compassionate, and it seemed this one was no exception. It wielded a small medical scanner, running it up and down each of them in turn, and smiling happily when she finished. "Welcome to Goldenrod!" She said, smiling happier than Jamie thought anyone had any business being considering how dire the situation. "You are all healthy. If you follow me, I will take you to the preserve. You will be as safe as you would be in the wild there… you will need to forage and hide from predators, but the bad things won't get to you, and the sickness won't either. You will be safe here."

Jamie stepped forward, trying to hide her frustration. "There's been a misunderstanding." She said, folding her arms and looking stern. "My friends and I self-inoculated and there were no doctors to give us implants. Can we talk to your superiors about getting refugee quarters somewhere in the city instead?"

The Blissey looked confused, staring at Jamie as though she barely understood. It was clear from her words that she understood worse than barely. "We won't let humans into the preserve, even if they are reugees." She said, patting Jamie on the head with one paw in a way that was doubtless meant to be comforting. "Don't worry, none of them will capture you and bring you to the city. Now come with me, there are more pokemon coming into the city all the time." Jamie tried to argue with her, but it was futile. Nothing short of revealing who/what she was would have sufficed, and that was the one thing she could not do. Perhaps being thought of as a wild Pokemon was actually a blessing. Sure she would have to hide from predators, but on the other hand there was total anonymity in the wildlife refuge, with very little record kept of the pokemon that came in and out. Living in a filthy burrow hardly appealed to her, but it was about a million times better than being discovered and shot.

So she did not argue long, letting the Blissey sheparded them along an underground walkway to a large central park. From her perspective it seemed the thick healthy trees stretched forever in every direction. Leafy canopies had been as much her domain as the ground before, but in this disguise she knew there was no way she was getting up there, not so long as her fur was grey and her tail was short. That quiet, nasty voice was whispering as she walked, telling her she didn't know how to return to normal if she wanted to. 'You never learned Transform.' It said, almost giddy with excitement. 'Logan tried and tried to teach you but you never could get it into your thick head. Now you'll be stuck as a rodent forever, until something decides to eat you.'

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Logan was sure to act suitably impressed as Also's submarine surfaced near the little research boat, and went with her as a personal guest into the bowels of the craft. The next few hours passed in a blur. Also's surviving oblates (there had never been that many to start with) were… friendly, though their company didn't sit quite right somewhere in Logan's stomach. It wasn't a question of ideology: Also hadn't made her feel like that. It was the sort of feeling that poured into her mind whenever she intruded on Jamie's nightmares. But what had made these individuals advance so much faster than Jamie, who was older than a few of them by decades. Was it the way Also had trained them? Or could it be their personalities themselves that made them more susceptible? Perhaps Logan's constant attention made Jamie _less_ susceptible?

The submarine was gigantic and advanced, but Logan had to feign being impressed. Not all the advanced technology or the way its design took so much from Lugia, or the way it moved nearly as fast as the hydrofoiled research vessel. The food was superb, and that she appreciated, but what she appreciated even more was how fast they found their target. According to the glowing displays on every screen, it wasn't even midnight when they detected a massive object on radar. The thing was practically soaring through the water, moving almost as fast as they were. But it was no match for their advanced drives, or the dedication of the crew.

The most jarring moment came when the submarine drew near to the huge object, which was only a faint black blur against the dark. Logan felt them passing through some sort of barrier, but there was no time to do anything but scream as the submarine was suddenly falling through empty air, tilting nose-first as it plummeted. Logan held herself immobile where she stood, but the crew all around her were tossed like dolls, plates and tools and everything else slamming and shattering and injuring more than a few.

Water waited for them as they passed through the other end of the bubble, falling for what must've been at least two hundred meters before the engines (a marvel they still worked after being so roughly treated) wrenched them back in the direction of their target. Logan listened as Also's appointed captain shouted commands, the woman herself rarely speaking. The second approach, now that they knew about the shield, proved much more effective, and an hour after finding the city, Logan was riding in the second tiny transport sub into the city, along with Also herself and her top scientists and Oblates.

They had breached the city on a top level, attaching a docking mechanism through a hole bored through solid stone. The city had preserved the oldest architectural traditions she knew, all geometric shapes cut from stone and mud brick, held together as much via energy cohesion emitters and gravimetric colliders. The collision of a distinctly technological way of life and an extremely primitive one were obvious in the city's design: Huge rings burned with smokeless, fumeless fires, lighting into roaring heat as they entered rooms and shutting off just as quickly behind them. An open gutter passed for the city's sewage system, while fountains poured crystal-clear water manufactured from energy.

The city looked quite accurately like the earliest Babylonians had been given space-age era technology more advanced than any of the worldships, and left to use it as they chose without the slightest guidance. There was nothing of grace in the design: Everything was rough and functional and often outright ugly. Logan smiled at all the old storybooks she had read as a child, depicting this place as elegant, the people who lived here as elf-like and refined. Those books would need some revision. If nothing else, the designs were functional, and the fact this city was still moving about the ocean like nothing had changed was a testament to the technological prowess of its creators.

"Ma'am, we've secured the deck for approximately five miles in all directions. So far no sign of any living things aboard." Said one of the heavily–armored troopers that had landed before either of them, saluting.

Also nodded solemnly. "As we suspected. The city's defenses will not rely on the influence of its population anymore than its regular function, however. Remember how many brave explorers have perished here. Begin regular patrols: I want scouts to locate the central control area as soon as possible. Always travel in pairs, and do not initiate hostility with defenses of any kind. We have good reason to believe primitive artificial intelligences are the reason this city has functioned as long as it has: If we give them a reason to be hostile than they'll swat us away like flies. Contact me or one of the oblates immediately if you encounter anything that shows even the slightest sign of intelligence."

"Understood ma'am!" The captain exchanged a few more words with Also, and was on his way, hurrying away from the camp to relay Also's orders. Logan marveled at how quickly the tent-city had been erected in the center of what had doubtless been a public square, illuminated by bonfires on every side and furnished with crystal clear water Also had ordered nobody to drink. Fences had been erected, and guards patrolled behind them. Subsequent runs of the small passenger sub had brought all sorts of people and supplies, both of which came in huge sealed crates opened by a large industrial robot.

One such individual seemed to be speaking for a number of the scientific people, and approached Also only when the military men had moved off to their duties. He was easily the largest man in the camp, and Logan had no doubt exceptions for his physical condition had been made because of his intellectual resources. "Bently." The woman greeted him as she greeted everyone, though the expression in her eyes was almost hungry. For once, Logan shared her curiosity. A few hours in this city was any scientist's dream… but what had he learned? She was grateful he went so quickly to the point.

"The city appears to be built in a modular design, with sections attaching at identical junctions running laterally, similar to the design of the Worldships. We believe the city has shed sections over the years that it deemed less essential, making itself more efficient as resources were depleted."

"How combat-ready is it? Propulsion, shields, weapons?"

The man squirmed a little. "We… haven't been able to find anything that might be an access to its central computer. We suspect it might not actually have one… It's too early to know. It's clear the shield is stable, or else we would all be crushed by the pressure. Whatever the city uses it's far more advanced than anything we know of: It doesn't produce EM readings of any kind, which makes it very difficult to study."

"I need to know the shield is going to remain stable, Bently. Make that your top priority. Once you do, see about the city's weapons. Neu Atlantisch does not have the luxury of worldships to defend it, but I do not doubt that Atlantis itself is more than capable of substituting that role."

Logan listened to each specalist in turn, standing in a place of honor beside Also but growing more restless by the second. She hadn't objected when the older Legendary dressed her in a uniform similar to what the Oblates wore, she had consented to carry a communicator at all times and even to relay anything she discovered within the city to Also herself. Anything was worth the price of finding the city. The hard part had been getting Also to consent to let her /use/ it. At least she had had the weight of evidence on her side. Whatever else Also might be, she was no fool. She realized just as Logan had how unlikely the original plan for survival had been. Logan's new one was… more than a little ambitious.

But considering Also's history, her outright audacity in the face of overwhelming odds, she had correctly suspected she could win Also to her cause. She had, but at quite a price. She still remembered Also's exact words, practically burning in her head. "I will take you to the city." She had said. "My technicians will make it operational again, and turn over control to you long enough for you to try what you've planned, even if it means Atlantis will not be available to help defend my people." A generous offer, if made slightly less so by the fact that Also knew full well her city would be leveled in hours, should Logan's plan fail, no matter what flying legendary cities were there to defend it. "I know full well what your name counts for so long as the others think you murdered Terah. But that will pass, and when it does, and the Exarchs are gone, you will have more influence than anyone. Whoever the new Eldest is, I want you to ensure he stops interfering with my people. Equally important, you renounce all exclusive claims of ownership to the city and its technology. I may not have much leverage at the moment; I've no wish for everyone to die, but if you've any sense of justice you will not utterly deny me this prize. Come victory you may trust that I will share it with you."

It had been a high price, but a bargain considering all that Logan was getting for it. So much hinged on bartered promises Also knew full well she might not survive to honor.

"I'm going." She said abruptly, looking up at the Older woman. She was not asking, but her expression was defunctory. If Also insisted she stay, she would be compelled to obey, and she knew it. But Also did not insist.

"I don't need to tell you not to try and fight if its defenses see you as a threat. Just try not to die."

Logan moved like a ghost from the camp, reappearing somewhere outside of the area that Also's men had secured and wandered down huge stone roads, which seemed to have been built the width of a horsecart. Torches bracketed to the walls lit themselves as she passed, illuminating the story of the city carved into the walls. Slowly, unaware of the presence slinking closer to with every second, she began to read.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Miya asked for Sabrina's help getting to her final destination, and she got it. When Miya had still been human, the powerful dark-type had dwelt in Alamos town, protecting the garden and the city for reasons unknown. When she told Sabrina where she needed to go and why, Miya learned that Darkrai had since fled to a desolate wasteland in the middle of nowhere. NewMoon Island had no inhabitants, not for decades. Ever since Darkrai had arrived, everything had either fled to the nearby Fullmoon Island or rotted. Sabrina could get Miya there easily, but she would be on her own after that. Sabrina had final preparations to make for the safety of her people, and evacuating the soldiers defending her gym while also protecting its inhabitants was no easy feat. Miya consented, dreading the hours she would have to spend flying back to Sinnoh after that. '_Stupid Logan giving me some stupid menial chore. Should have made Jamie deliver messages and knives, then I could go to New Island and be protected by Mewtwo.'_ The flaws in that logic never really crossed her mind: Complaining was Miya's way even if there was no one to hear it, the truth of those complaints did not matter.

Sabrina had been right about the state of the Island. By the light of the waning moon, Miya soared over blasted rock, painfully aware of how deserted the place was. Waves crashed spectacularly over huge rock cliffs, but not a soul stopped to see them. Wind roared over the water but was utterly still and silent over the surface of the island. It was as though nature itself feared he who dwelt here. Even the Eldest had feared him. It was not a matter of anger as it had been with Mewtwo; in other ages there had been far more dark-type legendaries, but all had been exterminated one way or another. Only Darkrai remained. Miya tried not to feel afraid as she remembered all the different names pokemon had for him. _Speaker of the Void. Builder of Nightmares_. _Voice of the Eclipse._

Sabrina's own words were all she had for comfort, and precious little comfort they were. _'Darkrai is fiercely territorial.' _Sabrina had said, not a hint of doubt in her voice. _'He will not understand you if you approach him from the mew. Darkrai is one of the Old Voices, an echo from man's golden age. Long before we were born he hated everything about the Legendaries and how they acted. He hates them because of their perfection. Mankind though, it has always loved. Don't try to hide your body… it will only see and be insulted. But Darkrai will be kind to you if you tell him the truth.'_

Miya sure hoped so. For once she made no attempt to protect herself, not her body or her mind. She knew full well what good that sort of protection would do against the power of a Dark-Type. "Darkrai!" Miya called, as loudly as she dared. "The Eldest sent me to return your dagger! I won't stay… just come over here so I can give it back and I'll leave you alone!"

She shouldn't have asked. Miya was no longer alone. She felt it even as she saw nothing, and found herself franticly scanning the shadows for the presence that pained her to endure. It picked her brain apart like a predator, its grip as firm as the Eldest's had been in his examinations but far crueler and more callous. At least until it had scanned back as far as it could. Then she saw it, rising from the shadows of a large boulder in what had once been a clearing. Miya moved respectfully closer as all her instincts screamed for her to run, watching as its body took shape from the dark. Space seemed to stretch and distort around a roughly humanoid figure. Its body was the darkness between galaxies, eyes the cold of dead stars. Smoke flickered from its head like a comet's tail, dancing with the energy of the aurora.

Darkrai hovered a few feet from Miya, who had to consciously fight, or else be drawn in close to him. She felt like she was in the presence of a being of living, breathing antimatter, just daring her to give in. It would be so easy… like looking into the void within a Shedinja. But Miya did not consider it long. For all her complaining, her outlook on the world was far more ignorantly optimistic than most mew. She never really bothered to consider the true odds against them, and so though she could be somewhat annoying, she cherished life and had no intention of letting go of it here.

Darkrai extended one hand, black smoky fingers opening as cool eyes watched her, silent except for the crackle of energy along its body. Miya put the dagger in its hand, fully expecting Darkrai to drive it through her chest. But he didn't. The hand pulled back and the weapon was gone.

"You are brave, firstborn." The voice cut, as though it spoke with all her sins. Miya had plenty of those to spare. Every word was a painful reminder of the precious time she had wasted. Of a childhood of inaction and indolence. How many people had died because she hadn't been stronger? "Now you have done your duty. Run back to your floating graveyard."

Miya had half a mind to do just that, but curiosity compelled her. "My mother taught me you can bring nightmares that never end." She said. Only silence answered. So she went on. "Logan never thought you were responsible for what was happening to my sister Jamie. I'm not blaming you, but… since you know so much about them, I was hoping you might…"

Darkrai laughed, a sound cold and alien. Like stellar glaciers impacting one another, the groan and crack of ice as it spread out in all directions. "I _am_ a nightmare, Miya. Every moment of my life and the lives of those around me. My breath calls down things people would rather forget, and dream impossible dreams. But your sister has nothing to do with me: she has nightmares because she is still alive. I have seen it before, and will see it again. If no one cures her, she will be worse off than me."

"What will happen to her?" Miya asked, unable to restrain her curiosity. "Will she be… something like you? A hole in the world…"

Darkrai's laughter was no less disturbing the second time. "Like me, yes. But not alive like me. The exarchs will claim her. They will poke holes in her brain and drain everything you ever loved away, and replace it all with lust and hate and anger. They will be her masters. But not me… I am my own master. They may have claimed my soul, but my will is still my own. If you do not cure her, your sister will be much more a monster, because she will want to be. Otherwise she would have cured herself already."

Miya pondered that for a moment, considering what role her sister might have in her own infection. Could she really have made a pact with the _outside_? It was too impossible to believe, but what else could Darkrai mean? "How do we cure her?" She demanded, braving the shadow's presence that much longer so to ask.

The creature was already fading though, mist beginning to burn away as the sun rose, sinking back into the shadows even as the faint glow of morning suffused the sky. Just as a nightmare felt foolish when examined in daylight, so too did this monster seem that much more the shadow. But as he faded, Darkrai extended one hand towards the island that was Newmoon's twin, a long and shaking hand that was the last to fall flat against the stone, vanishing entirely.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If Jamie had been more rational, she might've laughed at herself. Their first few minutes in the wildlife reserve were luckier than any of them could've hoped for: A huge system of burrows, empty and well concealed. Where its previous occupants had gone they couldn't guess, but after the first few minutes of clearing the refuse left behind, Jamie became so frustrated with how dismally awful Sam and Adam were at cleaning that she insisted on doing all of it herself, setting all three of her companions to scavenge for food while she explored and tidied the burrows.

It took hours, hours spent sweeping with her tail and pushing and exploring with her sense of touch more than her eyes, as there was very little light on the lower levels. There were large numbers of subterranean plants thriving in some of the rooms, long winding stretches of glowing mushrooms and patches of some weed that seemed to be growing in their light. The only lower limit of the burrows seemed to be the water-table. Even Jamie abandoned any attempt to tidy the lowest burrows, where dirt turned to thick mud and stuck to everything.

Her imagination spun as she cleaned, her only company in the cramped dark chambers all alone. For once, it was more than enough of a companion to keep her from being afraid. Who could possibly have built burrows like this? She imagined a huge colony of Rattata that had been gradually overcome by even greater numbers of furret, who had taken over their modest burrows and expanded them with fanatical zeal into the absolute maze they were now. But whatever few gifts her true species gave her, Jamie's memory was enough for her to remember every tunnel exactly, and she had no fears of getting lost.

It was almost dawn by the time she returned to the surface, and she was amazed at how much food had been brought. Fruits of every kind stacked higher than her head, along with piles of edible plants and berries scattered so disorderly she had to look away or else tidy it immediately. There was no question in her mind that three rodents couldn't amass such a bounty in a week, let alone eight hours or so.

Then she saw the crowd. They could've been fifty, perhaps more. They were all small, though not all electric. What surprised her most was to see how many had implants, meaning that some fair number of them had been… "We brought help!" Lumine shouted excitedly, practically bouncing up and down with eagerness to speak to Jamie first. "People! Pokemon…" She landed in front of Jamie, standing on her hind-legs to approximate her height. Even Jamie had to smile at how cute the little squirrel looked. Her words hardly reassured her though. "When they found out there was a mew here, everybody who liked working together wanted to help! We brought all the food we could… maybe all the food in the whole reserve."

Jamie narrowed her eyes. So much for hiding here, though she thought the likelihood of a message traveling from a wildlife preserve to central command was slim to none. It didn't really matter at this point… the message was out so at best all she could do was hope.

"In case the city is breached." Adam added helpfully, gesturing behind him at all the hopeful, broken faces. "Those burrows are huge. If we hid all the entrances…"

Jamie didn't want to crush their hope. If the city was breached, she had a realistic idea of how likely they were to survive. But who was she to take their hope away? It was a strange thing to be in the position of giving orders, but… there she was. "Um, you think…" At their stares, Jamie cleared her throat, and tried to speak more directly. Still, she couldn't meet the crowd's eyes. She directed her instructions to Sam and Adam. She'd given instructions to a few pokemon before… they could handle ensuring the crowd obeyed them. "Get everything inside. Take it to the lowest dry level, where it's coolest. Once that's done, we can start thinking about finding places for everyone. Oh, and make sure they stay out of the mushrooms… somebody worked very hard setting that all up, and I don't want it getting trampled."

She watched as the pokemon scurried to obey, carrying food down into the burrows and out of sight. They were not soldiers, but it was clear Adam and Sam had done a good job bringing only those that were either cooperative or desperate. The pile began to dwindle, and so did the crowd once Sam and Adam started leading them down to some of the upper burrows best for habitation.

More than a few of the pokemon, wild and otherwise, approached Jamie as the process continued. Most just wanted to talk with her, asking her stupid questions, anything to hear what a mew sounded like. Those with implants did not take things at such face value. Immune to the instinct that mew had bred into most species hundreds of thousands of years ago to keep themselves safe in any shape, they had no quiet voice in their head telling them Jamie was safe and trustworthy. But these few seemed to be more desperate than most, often starving and a little mentally ill. They were the dregs of the city, last to be given food by the authorities and first to be forgotten when needed services were being dispensed. So they had snuck into the reserve… one had even removed her implant herself, without equipment. It was a miracle she was alive at all… though death may've been better than the slow degeneration she was obviously experiencing. Jamie tried not to look at her as she was helped into the burrows, guessing that in a few more weeks she wouldn't be anything more than the wild pokemon she looked.

Jamie did not sleep, even when the day wore on and the sun began to set. The crowd was gone now, vanished entirely under the earth. She had no psychic power left to sense them with, though the vibrations in her feet did more than enough to accomplish the same task. They were all alive, all healthy… and all very much afraid.

"You should get some rest." Adam said, sitting down on a large stone beside her, and looking up with her at the waning moon. There was only a faint slice of it left. In another night or so, the sky would be empty. "Closing almost all the entrances was hard for all of us, and you worked harder than anyone. You must be exhausted."

Jamie sighed and nodded. Not that it was hard to see; Her tail was drooping so much it hung over her head. She forced it upright behind her as Adam looked her up and down, nevermind the effort it cost. "If I keep working I don't have to think about how hopeless all of this is."

"It's not hopeless." Adam said defiantly, glaring at her with such anger Jamie was afraid he might shock her. He didn't though. "You know there are predators out there eating people. All the food and those mushrooms, we could last for weeks down here, maybe months. We're not just hiding from the exarchs… unless you think we should try and get back on the worldships and hope they've changed their minds about killing all of us."

Jamie shook her head. "No, no… I just wish I wasn't so useless is all. That's all I ever am… and when I go to sleep the nightmares will come back. At least if I stay awake the worst that I'll be is tired."

Adam thought about that for a moment, watching the stars wink on one at a time. "Why would a mew have nightmares? You're a legendary, aren't you? A psychic-type even. I thought your powers worked through self-discipline? Mind-over matter and everything. If you're having nightmares can't you just make them stop? If I was writing a program and something went wrong, that's what I would do. I would find my mistake and fix it."

Jamie laughed, a cruel and brisk sound. Laughing at herself more than anything. "I never had many powers, Adam, or I don't think I'd be here. I could take us out of here, take us anywhere. Find Logan… she would make David listen. Wouldn't stop her if they sent every legion of the guard in the world after her, probably. She'd think of something… but I can't. I can't change back, I can't teleport. I can't even read people's emotions." She sighed, looking down. "Maybe I will go to sleep. Throw in the towel… let the Exarchs do what they want with me. At least it'll probably be quick."

A/N: Well, here we are! Another chapter done (finally). It took forever to get into the rhythm of things, so I hope I did a satisfactory job. Building up to the conclusion is easier said than done. I'm not sure if I will have time to write review responses this chapter or not… if I do, then they should be right after this paragraph. If I didn't, than I'll be sure to do it for next time. I'm so far behind I really don't want to be any later.


	14. Rewards of Serivce

Chapter 13: "Rewards of Service"

Logan flew along the passages with such speed the hieroglyphs poured into her mind, more like a film than a wall of stationary symbols. Each letter was so perfect, she suspected they had been carved by some robot, perhaps chronicling the fall of their civilization long after all their masters had perished. "We have heard nothing from the lunar colony, and nothing from our settlement on Alpha Centauri. Given the confirmed destruction of all ninety-three substantially sized earth settlements we can assume that Pokelantis is the last surviving advanced human population. Unlike the other settlements, Atlantis was prepared for an attack. Outlook is favorable so long as the firstborn do not bring out any of their motherships. The soothsayers chant doom, but our scientists assure us not even their greatest attacks will penetrate the outermost layer of the shield." She read on, read the chronicle of a successful defense and a retaliatory attack that claimed many firstborn lives, burning a tree village to the ground as so many human cities had been burned. As Logan knew it would, this was their hubris. Faced with such a direct attack, every one of the Arceus motherships was called into service, the colossal stone monsters darkening the sky over Atlantis.

The carvings did not change as she read over this darkest section of the tale. "All calls of surrender have gone unanswered. Lawmen have abandoned their posts, and riots fill the streets. With the outer shield breached, it is only a matter of hours before their weapons penetrate the hull and eviscerate everyone inside. The court soothsayer's predictions no longer disagree with any surviving scientists. A plan to salvage a small section of the city has been devised: By disengaging power from all other decks, the utility section might be made to transport away at the same moment the rest of the city is disintegrating." She had to stop reading there, imaging the cold, twisted logic of such a course. Sacrifice the millions of the city to save what few were deemed valuable enough to cram into the utility deck? At least she knew how this section of the city had survived.

There was little else left reading after that. The way the plan was successfully executed, and the royal family survived to found primitive settlements all over the earth, leaving Atlantis deserted once it had been drained of useful supplies. All the functional parts remained though, a floating historical testament to the extinct civilization that was its creator.

When Logan finally found her way to the control room, she found several of Also's technicians already there. Several traditional computer monitors had been erected along with a huge liquid-nitrogen cooled canister she knew housed a portable AI. So far as a little over a metric ton was portable, anyway. She climbed over the wires and past the guard, who looked as though he wanted to stop her but didn't dare say anything. As she had known, Also was there waiting for her, looking unchanged despite the intervening hours. Not a strand of hair out of place, not even a slightly different expression on her face. Thus it was with the oldest ones, she knew. Those who had only a paw left on earth, the rest on some unfathomed elder realm that only her AI would know. She wondered if Also felt it, if she hated it as much as she claimed to. How long could she deny a world she was beginning to live in every day? Would her oblates keep her ideals alive when she was gone? She supposed she would have to wait until the war was over to see the answer to that.

"We need to leave." Logan was the first to speak, meeting Also's eyes. "We have only a few hours before the Exarchs arrive. How close are we to leaving? We can modify the antimatter fabricator on the way." She was impatient, imagining the pestilent sore in the sky that must be forming even now. What would it look like when the Great Others arrived to wreak awful vengeance on the life the eons had made them forget? She supposed that if anyone had to witness it, she would have already lost.

Also did not answer. Instead, she lowered her head to one of the staring scientists, the one with the quivering jowls. Bently? She thought that was his name. "We have full control over the city's defenses. A.C.T. is having trou-"

"This isn't the city." Logan interrupted, stepping forward past him to the console. "This is just the utility section. Power production, waste disposal. You wouldn't like what happed to the rest of it." She extended one hand over the embedded crystal, which lit up and reconfigured, hundreds of little hexagonal sections reconfiguring in something akin to a display. She read them briefly. Energy reserves were precious low. Low enough she might not even be able to get the antimatter fabricator started. There was none at all in the reserves… if there had been, mutual annihilation would've more than paid the energy to get the fabricators started again, and so begin an infinitely circular pattern. Or… as infinite as the matter they could convert into its antimatter equivalent. How long would it take to produce the planetary quantities she needed? It was a good thing they had come now… a few more centuries and Atlantis might be a stationary ruin of withering rock, covered in corals and home to fish.

Bently did not seem to know how to answer that. Also did, though. "Our Autonomous Communications Technology is having difficulty disabling the program they left running. We can't access any of the city's systems that the program is using, and it's using almost all of them."

Logan privately smiled at that, imagining her own Dakota doing far better than Also's AI assistant was doing. But she didn't say anything about it. Instead she asked. "Wouldn't you be better? You're older."

The woman shook her head. "The city recognizes what I am and won't allow me to interface with it. You know its history: You know why such a protocol would be installed. But either your youth has concealed you or your shapeshifting is perfect. Either way." She gestured to the still-glowing display below Logan's hand. "If you're so eager to get us underway, then by all means. Set a course."

Logan tried. She was able to locate the program easily enough, but the program itself was anything but simple. Complex interlinking subroutines well beyond her skill at codebreaking flooded her mind, and easily defeated any of her attempts to modify the program that had been left in control of the city. They weren't going anywhere.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Edward Irongate was not oblivious to the impending doom of his world. He had made no travels down to the voidship and heard no voices that had endured universes before. Edward Irongate had much better than that. In a secret alter aboard his flagship fashioned of obsidian and stones far darker. The darkest of those rested at its center upon a plinth encrusted with gemstones. "**Non Omnis Moriar**" proclaimed the Keystone, which looked almost like an innocent fragment of rock as Edward descended the stairs above it. The clutch at his heart told him better, though. His limbs weakened as he drew nearer, and the feeble flicker around the stone became a bright purple glow. The glow became a burning, a royal ember that spiraled into a whirlpool twisting with spheres of light. Edward made it a habit to visit the stone as little as possible since it had claimed the life of his oldest brother several years ago. Even now he did not regret it, though. One stubborn brother's life was a fair price for control of the world.

"Spiritomb." Edward lowered his head as he reached the shrine, slitting one palm on one of the sharp rocks before the shrine, dribbling it onto the keystone. He fanned the flames: damned souls woke. Then they spoke.

"You have done well." Chorused more than a hundred voices. "Now you must meet our true masters. The time of their coming is at hand."

"I have already made preparations." Edward stood, straightening his robes as he did so. The wound on his hand had already closed, twisted old flesh closing where smooth skin had been before. "The Ephraim has been routed to an arctic patrol."

The flames amidst the alter whirled and twisted. Edward could never tell what emotions this curious pokemon was feeling. All of them, he supposed. The voice that answered seemed largely angry, though. Almost fearful as it screamed. "One ship will not be enough!" It lashed at him with spectral flames, but these were lashes Edward had felt many times before, so he did not flinch. "You must bring them all! Show the Old Ones how powerful human servants can be!"

Even Edward was taken aback by the order. "All of them? Spiritomb, most of our ships are on assignment protecting our cities. If I recall them…"

"The Exarchs will take only the lives of the unworthy." Soothed the scores of damned souls, fire flashing from purple to crimson and back again. "Do you think you can make peace with them while you are still fighting and killing their servants? Order every ship to the arctic. You might even tell them the truth. Say that you know where the Outer Kings will arrive, and when. Let them believe whatever they wish of your intentions so long as they obey."

Edward considered that a moment. His generals in the army would scream for his head, and many of their positions would fall without air support. But what could they do? He would only need obedience for a day. The Outer Kings would crown him and mankind would be free forever, under his immortal rule.

An hour later and he had already delivered the order to his commanders. He had underestimated their resistance. Ten ships obeyed without question, as he had known they would. He had appointed those captains himself… dull compliant men that knew his love for obedience. Five more had agreed under great protest and persuasion, and he knew that if things went poorly their captains would ultimately choose the safety of their ships over the success of his cause. They would be the first he sacrificed as soon as the opportunity came.

He had expected one or two of the worldships to refuse his call, those captained by powerful men and women in their own right whom he hadn't the social capital to remove (yet). Gary he had known would refuse, treating his duty to protect the pokemon reservation his grandfather had built like a sacred trust. Erica was Alvin's daughter. He doubted very much she knew her father was traveling with his treacherous sister, but she had always been closer to the legendary pokemon than he liked. Aile was another one whose loyalty he had never imagined: She had been one of them herself only a few decades past and had not taken keenly to his little coupe.

What he hadn't expected were three more captains who refused to follow orders, most of which commited to defending civilian targets from large numbers of soulphage victims. Were they lost to him? He couldn't say, though he at least respected them for being open with their loyalty. "Should I change our course? We could intercept the Asher without missing the time you specified for the arctic rendezvous." That was Jane talking, his secretary and most trusted confidant, following him as always with short blonde hair swinging behind her. Her bright blue eyes shone even behind the computer-interface over one eye, and she feigned an excited smile even as she hurried to keep pace with him. She even managed to look beautiful with the row of Praetorian guards following them. Jane never asked questions, only did as she was told and looked pretty. Well, that wasn't true. Despite her other advantages, Edward had 'hired' her for her intelligence, and that was exactly what he got. Still, he shook his head. "Not this time. Better to have one undamaged ship than two weakened ones to defend against the Exarchs when they break through." He repeated the lie so easily now, even to her. But Jane did not mind being lied to.

"As you say, Prefect. Maintain our current course it is. Though I would have liked to see a partially assembled ship contend with us. How long before the crew mutnies, you think?"

Edward tried to hide his amusement at Jane's idea. Amusement, because of how causually and callously she spoke of attacking one of their own ships defending a civilian target. Yes, he supposed, he had chosen well in her. Yet, there was good reason she only made suggestions, and he made decisions. "Not long, Jane. But then everyone knows we attacked one of our own ships, and we could very well lose more. No… we can do without the Asher."

"Without six worldships." She replied, but nodded all the same, lowering her head.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jamie could not sleep at the dawn of the end of the world. She had no way of measuring time except the rising and falling of the sun, yet that was all she needed. There were only hours between her and those strange Others that came from her nightmares. She had not heeded the word of her companions, as much sense as they made. How could she possibly sleep so close to the end? She was no mew to make quick calculations of how long it would take the exarchs to reach goldenrod, but her subconscious told her days, not weeks. Without the Eldest's strategy of luring the Exarchs away from the planet, she had no doubt many lives would be lost. Pokemon lives, just like the ones in the burrow with her.

Jamie did not know if she should feel proud or stupid for what she was doing. On the one hand, it seemed the first decent thing she'd done in ages: Sharing her shelter and offering comfort to these pokemon, regardless of how they had been born. Some of them… she hadn't known which… had filled her little room with soft herbs and leaves to help her sleep, but all they did was make her feel guilty. Guilty for giving almost half a hundred pokemon false hope that they might somehow miraculously survive. "That's you, Jamie." She whispered to herself, curling up in a little ball with arms wrapped tightly around her hindpaws. "Captain of the selfish patrol. You only let them stay because you were too afraid to turn them down. You're only down here because you're too weak to be a mew. You're only alive because you're too cowardly to kill yourself."

Jamie didn't get to go on with her self-loathing, though. Didn't have time, because of another one of the little pokemon that'd come with her. The score of little faces watched from the burrow downward as the _Yawn_ took effect. That was exactly what Jamie did, closing her eyes in a few moments, and drifting off, fighting to silently resist but helpless against the technique and her own exhaustion. She was gone.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Jamie was a little girl again, curled up on her bed as the door to her room banged so hard the whole thing shook. She was wearing her nightgown, quivering with eyes closed to resist what she knew was coming. So this was how it came for her this time, eh? Every time she got younger, as the thing killed all the older versions of her, leaving her younger and weaker each time she finally gave in to tiredness and slept.

But for the second time, she was not alone. Kari was there, though he wasn't a child too, not this time. Kari wore the uniform of an astronaut, before legendary technology had made space travel routine. His hair was even cropped the same, and face still a little sunburned. He had no weapons, no tools, though he held the door as hard as he could, bracing himself firmly against the inside of her bedroom, and wincing as the door banged again. Jamie forced herself to watch as he held back what was on the other side, sickly black slime seeping through the cracks.

"Time's up, Jamie." He said, turning to face her as another bang came. The door shook again, but as before, it held. Less and less well each time, though… "No more hiding behind your friends." Another loud bang, and Jamie pulled the covers up over her head, quivering. Kari spoke on. "You're about to be thrust out into the dark, all by yourself. We've helped you this long but we can't help you anymore."

Jamie poked her head above the quilt, little blue eyes fixed on him. She didn't say anything, not as little bits of wood showered all around Kari like a dull brown rain. A few more blows, and the door would be gone. " I can't!" Little Jamie squeaked from under the covers, so quiet that if Kari were real he would probably not have been able to hear her. "I can't! It always gets me! I'm not strong enough!"

Kari sighed, as if resigned to the worst, pressing himself all the harder against the door that could no longer support the hammers that fell on the other side. "You are strong enough, Jamie. You are because you have to be." Another shudder, and this time it was too much for the feeble wood. Splinters went everywhere, and Jamie felt the awful rush, as though the door opened onto deep space. A rush and a pop, and Kari was gone into the void, Jamie's furniture dragging along the floor before going spinning out into nothing. The bed was last, and it sent her spinning, screaming into the cold.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Logan had nearly given up. She had never been much for puzzles and codes, and being a mew had not changed that. Sure, any human puzzle might have been simple for her to solve… but the humans that had built this one had hardly been so simple as the modern variety. Also's technicians were struggling with it behind her, with the woman herself doubtless puzzling a way to take a crack at the controls personally. How long would that take? Longer than they had, Logan knew. There were hours left until the Exarchs arrived, perhaps minutes. It was over. Her world was lost, and in a few more hours everything she knew would be ashes. Should she set off into space now? Pretend she was a deoxys and never look back? What would the point be? If there was no earth, then there was no reason to be alive anyways. Best just to… keep going.

A breach might mean awful casualties, but it didn't necessarily mean their cause could not be won. In every other conflict before the Exarchs had breached through into reality, did she really think this time would be any different? Besides… just because she couldn't breach the city's security didn't mean she didn't know another mew young enough not to be detected who might be able to do the job. "I need to go outside." She announced suddenly, though there was really no reason to leave the city. Sound traveled further in water, but she could send a thought as far as she wished. Still she went, disappearing from where she stood and appearing outside, no longer wearing human skin and no longer caring. She did not fall as the submarine had done, holding herself stationary for a moment in its little bubble of air before gritting her teeth and plunging into the crushing black depths, a little pink marble lost amid the currents. She let them toss her for a moment, though she never once let the city's position falter in her mind. Some good it would do her to find who she was looking for, only to lose track of the city and wander lost on the ocean floor until the Exarchs finally found her. Strange glowing shapes passed her on every side, pausing to inspect this new source of light in their world of utter blackness. Many brought their own light, strange deep-sea pokemon that had no names she knew with bodies thin as gossamer. There was no floor above her and no ceiling below, but she kept her bearings well enough.

She made no pretense, though she didn't reach out into the global link that connected most psionic legendaries. Do that, and she would be giving her position to the others… if they hadn't been looking for her before, they were now, and she lacked the time to waste in some sort of trial demonstrating her innocence in the Eldest's death. To say nothing of all the soldiers that had been set to defending the central core… "BIT!" She screamed silently into the water, screamed and screamed and screamed some more. She had no doubt Also would hear her screaming, but she didn't care… just so long as nobody came to drag her off. Eventually she went silent, following the swift shape of the city through the water and occasionally calling another plea for help into the dark. There was nothing to do but wait here and hope Bit's mastery of space meant she could get here before the others could.

The pokemon who answered her call was hardly the one she had expected. She felt the shape in the water before she saw it, massive compared to her and moving so quickly it sent ripples through the water behind it. There was a very short list of pokemon that could survive at these depths… and the list of those that could survive with any sort of technique to shield them was even smaller. Still, this one obviously belonged to that caste, as the only psychic power she sensed from it was moving it forward through the water. Logan knew that shape… but she didn't try to get away. A Lugia had found her, and there was no way she was getting away from it down here. So she turned, tried to look dignified, and waited for it to approach.

The thing stopped in front of her… or not so much stopped as it did fell into a pursuit course of the city with her, matching pace with leisurely efficiency. Yet as Logan surveyed the creature she could not help but see it as ungainly. Its wing/fins twitched awkwardly as it moved, causing so much drag she was sure that some of those waxy feathers would be torn off. Even as they moved, a few were, and the huge legendary shivered as bit by bit her insulation was worn away.

Logan had spent very little time with Lugia… their domain was so far from the upper skies she loved that they had little reason to cross paths. It wasn't until coordination for the war had begun that she even spoke with one… and even then, only briefly. They thought about time differently than mew did, living much longer and reproducing only once every few decades. The Eldest had told her they lived more like plants than animals… slow and decisive, and not very receptive to change. Still, they were powerful dedicated warriors and valued allies in a time like this, unwavering in their faith of the old ways. So when the legendary spoke, Logan expected its voice to be slow, almost mournful. No doubt it was here to drag her away for trial. Only then it spoke, and her despair lifted at once.

"Logan, I'm so glad it's you! If I spend another minute like this I think I might freeze solid, and I didn't trust myself to try and change back. Cost of miscalculation is too high."

The feline pressed herself to her friend, or as close as she could get without getting rid of her shield. "Bit!" She turned at once, gesturing. "Let's get inside the city's pressure-field; it's hard to concentrate on transform out here, and if I lose concentration at this depth..." There was no need to elaborate. Logan went on as they soared through the water together. "I need a code broken, Bit. As fast as possible."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Somewhere far away, a somewhat anxious looking trainer was attempting the most dangerous landing he had ever attempted.

"Paige, tell me again that the stealth systems are all operating properly." Izzy asked, bobbing nervously up and down near the front of the cockpit. The transparent assembly gave them an awful view of what lay below and all around them here on Mt. Moon. It seemed to her that every voidspawn and soulphage victim on earth had gathered here around Mt. Moon. They had eaten everything: stripped every tree and every rock, leaving the world utterly desolate as far as she could see. The only exception was the mountain itself, a great stone pinnacle that barely rose above the great press of living organisms. If any of them could be called alive… Few stood on the mountain proper, though they clustered tightly about it like the organs of some recently slain carcass, still beating in absence of the brain.

In theory, the Spiritomb-class stealth bomber would be totally silent and completely invisible, and Paige insisted that all of those systems were working perfectly. That did little to reassure the mew, who had to close her eyes in order not to see the awful throng assembled below them. "Why did we have to come here, Alvin?" She asked for perhaps the tenth time as he piloted the aircraft downward, face distorted with his concentration.

It was Paige who answered for him, so that his concentration on the matter at hand might not be broken. "He already explained that, Izzy." She said, as gently as possible. Her image did its best to look reassuring, though she really wanted to reach out and give the feline a big hug, and that much she couldn't do. "The deadline's almost here. Since the two of you have exhausted every other method at finding a Quantum lens, he's going to talk to his friend. He could do it anywhere of course… but you need to be here when Logan arrives with Atlantis."

"I still don't see why we can't park in the sky or somethin'. Or somewhere nearby… a few miles or so… so we would be close enough when Logan gets here but far enough we don't need to worry about these voidspawn." Izzy landed on a pilot's chair, standing on her hind-legs and glaring up at Paige's image, knowing she'd won. But of course she hadn't. If that logic would have brought her a victory, they wouldn't be landing. That didn't stop her from saying it though.

"This was the only spot of clear ground on sensor range." Paige answered, quietly and patiently. "None of them are on the slopes anymore: This is the only area they're avoiding entirely. If we stayed in the air then one of the flying ones would be bound to crash into us by sheer luck eventually, and then they'd all be on us. But so long as none of them come up here…"

Alvin touched down lightly then, and the light shock that traveled through the craft caused Izzy to jump back into the air, shrieking and curling up on herself. She peeked open with one eye at the transparent window displays, expecting to see the assembled masses thronging up the slopes to devour them, but… they didn't move. The group continued to undulate gently to an invisible heartbeat, seemingly completely unaware of their presence.

The 'trainer' wasted no time, standing up and cracking his knuckles. He reached out with one hand, petting Izzy gently. "Don't worry." He said, smiling as confidently as he could. "I promise I'll be back the instant I'm gone." He took his hand away and walked out, descending a set of stairs to the latrine. He flicked on the light and looked into the mirror for a moment, just long enough for its surface to flicker and ripple like water. Then he stepped through, leaving nothing behind.

The transition was less of a shock to Alvin, now that he was so well accustomed to it. Having every atom stripped from your body on the twisting descent out of material space came much quicker to him now. The reverse world was slower to change than its physical counterpart, and where a desolate wasteland existed in reality the echoes of trees still flourished, seasonal flowers drifting gently in Alvin's imagination. Clear, uncontaminated water cascaded down the mountainside, which Alvin realized upon reflection looked more like the base of some great tower than a natural structure. A few hundred million fewer years of erosion, and maybe…

"I knew you would come. Still, sooner than I expected. Your planet isn't dead yet, so you must not have come to hide. Let's play that game of linear time you're so practiced at and I'll ask what you've come for, even though you've already said it."

Alvin met the man's eyes with frustration in his face, though it was much reduced now that he knew he could return to time at the exact moment he left. There was still urgency with Alvin, though. He did not know how long he could keep himself balanced on this exact moment in time though he suspected the answer was "not long". He spoke as calmly as he could though, looking down on the one-legged man in his wheelchair, none of which was real. "We need a quantum lens. Or… Logan does, anyway. One of the parts from the machine that made the Exarchs in the first place. It…"

"I know." There was an expression like barely contained anger in his voice, eyes flickering passionately as he plainly resisted the desire to tear Alvin apart. "The Tower that opened the cracks, that polluted my world. It is the reason my travel to the reflection is so limited, the reason my world need die so soon. Forever should be so much longer than it is. To use that mechanism makes you no better than the blind, ignorant fools that ended creation with their hubris." Still, the fisher king had the discipline only infinite time could bring, and he restrained his rage. Rage over the injury to his own little corner of the universe, injury that was just as lethal to him as it was to the world. So all he did was sigh then, leaning back in his chair. "Now comes the part when you convince me to help you anyway. Go ahead."

So Alvin did, explaining Logan's plan as he understood it, in its entirety. The fisher-king listened with a sort-of saddened resolve that Alvin did not understand, not until he had finished explaining and the man nodded. "I will help you Alvin, but you will not like what happens when I do."

Only Alvin didn't respond. He stared blindly out into space for a moment, the wheels of his mind spinning faster than ever. "If this plan succeeds when we try it, why are you still hurt? Shouldn't repairing the universe have healed your injuries too?" The old man only looked down sadly, not saying a word. After a few moments, Alvin's expression mimicked his sadness, though his resolve was clearly stronger than his elder. "We have to try anyway. I refuse to accept this future... whatever you have to do to get me the component, do it."

The old man did not budge, though he spoke on anyway. "Very well. You will regret asking me where I obtained it. It's waiting just below the ground where your aircraft is parked."

Alvin wanted to turn and leave, but he couldn't help himself. He had to know what damage his asking had done, for the sake of his sanity. And so he did. "Where…"

"The tree of beginning is stone and ash without its heart." He said simply, and Alvin understood. There was no need to travel… he was there, watching from high above as the huge stone structure went up. Bright orange light shone from all around as all the crystals that had grown from the one he had wrenched out began to fade. He was glad he could not hear the cries of Izzy's sister, the mew far older than any other living legendary, its soul frozen within the heart of the tree. Without a heart, the poor pokemon floundered, drifting to the ground and dying in agony. Alvin forced himself to watch, though he did not raise his voice to stop what the King had done. He knew that was impossible… that he was seeing the flames meant that he had already kindled them, and that his efforts to find another solution would be doomed to fail. Still, he did not allow himself to take his eyes from the sight, not until the flames died, the corpse stilled, and the forest was silent again. He had been the one to kill the place, at least indirectly. It was the least he could do to watch the consequences of his work.

When the fire was gone, Alvin left without a word, reaching up and grasping firmly to the moment he had held in the back of his mind, stepping back into the physical and leaving the reflection behind.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As Edward Irongate sat in the Captain's chair of the Ephraim and looked out upon the assembled multitude of the Worldships, he had no doubt in his mind that the footage of this moment taken by cameras on every one would become treasured historical data. The last moments of the old ways: The death of the way things had been and the birth of a new era. Pokemon mistakes had created this threat, not human ones. There was no reason they had to live in the shadow of legendaries any longer. With some large percentage of the earth's human population there to see the moment, Edward had no doubt that the message would be engrained on the hearts and minds of people for generations to come.

Who were pokemon to tell them who mankind's friends could be, or who were their enemies? From a young age Edward had resented them… after mutilating his younger sister, and subsequently corrupting her, they had earned nothing but his ire, and an unwavering resolve to see the whole lot punished for the way they treated people. Nevermind what Izzy said had caused her changes… to Edward the criminals had signed their own handywork plainly atop her head. The only truly important part of Izzy's story was what she didn't say: That the pokemon that had done it to her did so without her consent, violating the most sacred thing in Edward's mind: Free will.

"Sir, the temperature within the rift has dropped to two degrees Kelvin. Any change to your orders?" Praetorian guards surrounded Edward, and several more stood about the entrances and exits to the bridge. There wasn't a pokemon to speak of in sight, legendary or otherwise, and every human aboard lacked any sort of inoculation. Proto-humans might be soulphage carriers, after all, so could not be allowed to come in contact with those most vulnerable to the disease.

Edward stood up, taking a few steps forward and looking at the huge display trained on what technicians had taken to calling simply "the vortex". That was what it resembled… a huge whirlpool of mist and air, twisting gently in from all directions to a point of central nucleation. The force of wind in the awful conflagration grew by the moment, and even the Worldships needed to stay well over a mile away so they would remain unaffected by the gentle spiral of matter towards oblivion.

The Vortex had one close approximation: The core of a Worldship, and it was of this Edward was reminded as he watched the screen. For a moment the beauty of the gradually growing darkness nearly brought him to tears… but the moment passed quickly, and he returned to his seat. "How well are our shields resisting the wind?"

Another technician answered, from her station behind the weapons console. "Shields are currently operating at two percent of maximum capacity. Power distribution nominal."

Jane was suddenly behind him, pressing close to the back of the huge chair, soft hands working down his shoulders. "Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. Only a few more minutes, and you will have changed the world."

Edward did not move, leaning back into Jane's hands and letting her work, not caring for once what the military personnel with him on the bridge thought of his physical involvement with the secretary. The bridge itself was a huge, circular area, with his chair in the center and various consoles spread along the walls, so most of the technicians had their backs to him anyway.

"Message coming in from Commander Lyra!" One of them shouted abruptly, causing Edward to sit suddenly straight in his seat, and look harshly in the young man's direction. "She says it's of the upmost importance, cannot wait."

The man frowned a moment, then shrugged and rose. "Send it to the bridge conference room. I'll take it now." He strode casually from the room, glancing at his watch. Eight minutes… he would have to wrap this up quickly. It wasn't as though he didn't know what she would be saying… he just had to find a way to phrase his denial that was both cordial and elegant. It was of this he considered as he strode inside, listening as Jane slammed the door gruffly behind him.

"What is it, Lyra?" He seemed almost bored as he activated the screen, folding his arms.

The woman that appeared on the screen was old enough for a military commander, though she'd kept her almost girlish pigtails as she got on in years. She wore many medals, though they did not suit her in her anger. Her face was twisted and contorted with what was plainly barely restrained rage. "You took our air support, Damnit!" She was almost screaming. "Castelia city is burning, 'prefect'! The only orders you gave my men and I were stupid. Surrender? You ever surrendered to a virus before? Well neither have we, and that's why we're still here!" There was the sound of shouting and gunfire from just off-screen. Whatever office building the military commander had taken as her headquarters was obviously under siege. "I need at least ten-thousand city drones with incendiary explosives if you want me to hold the city. Sending the Reuben back to deal with the larger threats is essential as well."

Edward shook his head, as gently as he could manage. "Sorry general, but I would not have ordered all ships and resources brought to me if I didn't need them. You will have to make due with what you have. Which is how I responded to your written requisition order. I wonder how you managed to bring your message so high up. I had orders… did you pay someone off, I wonder? Or maybe you have a relative somewhere important more loyal to you than to me. Whoever they are, I promise you I will find them, and _dismiss _them from my service."

Lyra's face reddened as though she'd been slapped, but it was not an expression she held long. "Fuck you, Prefect." She said, eyes cold. "If anyone in my company lives, I swear they'll spread this story. I hope I'm at your tribunal when they hang you." The screen went black.

"We have fourteen nuclear instillations within range of Castelia, Edward." Jane casually offered a little electronic datapad to him, which Edward took absently, flicked through, and selected several.

"These should do." Edward handed the pad back, dismissing several million lives with a few twitches of his thumb. "Concentrate on the city center, I think. The outskirts will have already fallen." And that was it. Nuclear weapons dispatched and the matter done, the two left the room and returned to the bridge just in time to see the course of history change forever.

Edward could not have said if the sight was magnificent or disgusting, the way the dark spot grew and stretched and spread, a pool of evil water turned in on itself and undulating with the beat of a million dead hearts. "Increase the resolution." Edward ordered, even as one of the technicians bolted from the bridge, wretching and doing as best they could to hold back vomiting.

The first of the beings through the opening was a pale wisp of a thing, a faint black flicker Edward could scarcely see. He could not look directly at the thing… the screens just showed shadow and smoke, smoke that drifted away from the void rather than towards it. It was like watching birth. One shadow became many as he watched.

"The other ships are ready to fire on your command, Prefect!" His military advisor sat in one of the closer consoles, a headset obscuring his eyes. "They're asking for a target. What coordinates should I give them?" Most were notably looking away from the rift at this point, away from the storm of shadows that rose like flames from the maw of the void. So many simply vanished, too weak to survive in a world of matter and flesh. But the shadows were without number… every one hideous. What did they look like? Scuttling spiders and starving, mutilated children? It was impossible to say, because of the way they changed. Look straight at one, and your eyes would simply pass through.

That was changing rapidly, though. The sparks that made it were beginning to coalesce into a faint black heart, expanding and contracting with an unsteady rhythm as the various bits of dust and refuse spinning towards the abyss changed direction and joined the cyclopean organ.

"No target… I want all ships to stand down. We don't want to give this thing any reason to target us… that isn't what we came for." On any other ship, such a response might have illicited argument. But since taking command, Edward had removed anyone who showed signs of disloyalty, regulating them to the ships he already counted lost to his cause or simply making them disappear. "Tell the other ships this entity is no threat yet… if we vaporize it now, then when there's ten-million more they will be less willing to talk."

Rip… that was how it looked. If reality could bleed, it would probably look like the tear in the sky. What had been molecules across had widened to several inches, faint flickering like discolored lightning. The ocean was a sickly black below where the tear grew, the corpses of fish floating to the surface as the water boiled, water vapor twisting towards the empty space in the sky. The intensity of the wind grew by the moment, and it wasn't long before the pokemon corpses twisted upward of their own accord. The majority of these went towards the abomination that grew from the bulk of what poured through, growing faster and faster as the rip grew into a tear.

"I want all ships to stand down!" Edward shouted again. And to his credit at picking commanders, all of them listened. At least, all of the worldship commanders did. A long-range drone bomber, the Imperial, broke formation from behind the worldships and rushed towards the growing _**thing **_that floated in the center of the circle. Chemical-fuel rockets boosted it straight towards what all the other ships had avoided. As it moved, thousands of flies broke from it, flies with metal wings and hydrogen-oxygen lasers mounted on their bellies. Edward's eyes widened in horror as he watched… some crew of remote pilots and computer programmers was going to ruin everything! "Target that ship!" He shouted to the tactical officer, getting out of his chair and pointing exaggeratedly at the screen.

There was no time. Before the ship's weapons could charge, the little bomber's hull had already begun to glow bright orange, huge globs of molten metal streaming off into the ocean or being drawn into the creature. The awful black shape made no discrimination. Dust, water vapor, or the corpses of pokemon… they were all integrated the same, a jet-black shape that briefly glowed white and orange and yellow as massive chunks were pulled from the ship. The drones flew by their thousands, firing useless lasers into the massive center of the vortex before the winds alone tore them to bits. The ship did a little better, releasing its thermonuclear cargo and detonating with a shockwave that caused even the worldships to shudder. The fireball grew, vaporizing what little matter had began to congeal into a body, though it did not get much further before the incredible energy was tugged back, dragged through the opening and helping to widen it far faster than mere time had done.

What little damage the warhead had done was very quickly erased, as a thousand thousand new souls rose to fill the place of those that had been wiped away. It grew much faster this time, taking matter from the surrounding area and building a shell with terrifying swiftness. Black became purple as it grew, with a flaky skin that fell to the ground. Black ichor dribbled from the wounds, thick and putrescent as the thing began shaping itself into something familiar. There were only a handful of individuals who might recognize it for what it truly was, and all of them were much too old to fight. Had Professor Krane been aboard any of the worldships, he would have noticed the clear physical similarities to a certain XD001. Whether the thing took the rough shape of an existing pokemon out of choice or because something compelled it to do so, none who watched could know. But a familiar shape it took nonetheless, bright red eyes and whale-like body and bits of silver on its belly and back. As the thing's outline began to solidify, the subsequent deluge began to twist and spiral around it, causing the thing to grow and distort in its original outline.

"What's the status of the communications probe?" Edward asked the room, alone in his ability to look unmolested on the sight before them in the air. Well not quite alone. Of his bridge officers, one was unconscious, another was twitching on the floor, and several more were staring open-mouthed at the thing in the air. One rocked back and forth in her chair, gibbering as the momentarily concrete shape lost all sense of human coherence, bulging grotesquely as huge blisters of flesh constantly grew big, swallowing whatever matter they could, then either exploded or sank twisting into the creature's huge body.

"Science officer Altur, the prefect asked you a question." Jane said coldly, glaring at the older man at the largest and most complicated console. The man turned back, his eyes wide. "Arceus protect us." He mouthed, before slamming motionless into his console with a loud crack. He did not move again, and blood dribbled slowly from one ear, thick and red.

"Hold on." Jane said, hurrying to the console and callously tossing the man's body to one side, fingers flying across the display. "The shielding system you ordered has been installed, Edward. I can launch now."

Even Edward was taken with the sight, though for him the consequences were far more mild than for the other bridge officers. Still, he hesitated long enough for Jane to launch the probe anyway, as the prefect answered, his face pale. "Is the telecom uplink in place?

"It is." Jane stood up from the console. There was a look of concentration in her eyes, though no part of her moved after that. "Piloting the probe is… difficult… with the wind… but with the modifications we made it should be loud enough for It to hear."

Edward nodded, gulped, and stepped forward, adjusting the microphone as he began to speak. "Your loyal servants greet you, Outsider. We do not hold the old grudges, and have no intention of blindly opposing you as your living kin would force us to do. We are your allies and supplicants in all things." He did not bow as he spoke, though it would not seem out of place considering his voice and his words, hoping to placate these forces from far beyond the stars.

On the exterior of the ship it was the probe from which Edward's voice issued. The unfathomable being did not look at the probe, though. It turned its eyes on him (or at least the camera he was looking through), watching with a pair of deep red pits that burned with fire far colder than hell. Edward could not meet those eyes, and so he did not try, hands fixed pointedly on the floor. Jane looked on unmoved, her eyes as cold and utterly without emotion as they ever were.

The voice that answered did not come vocally, as though the being that spoke would trouble itself with words. The answer came directly into Edward's mind, and so he froze, staring out at the speaker and face stretching into a silent scream. The discourse took mere moments, moments that stretched for the prefect into forever and far longer. Even as his eyes grew cold, however, he snapped up, shaking his gaze from the onlooking eyes and shouting down to his slowly recovering crew. "Engage psionic dampening fields!" He bellowed, collapsing back into the captain's chair and shuddering several times. He wretched, though there was nothing to bring up, his skin slowly prickling with wrinkles and spots, as though he were much older. He slumped against the armrest, barely conscious.

Jane took over, as solemnly devoted to this new side Edward had chosen as she had been to the previous. She looked, as before, utterly unmoved, either by the exchange or the fate of her master, slipping Edwards command headset onto her head and imitating his voice with utterly inhuman precision. So much so that even the remaining conscious bridge-officers obeyed, without looking back. Unlike her master, she spoke without a hint of weakness or distress. "All ships, attack-pattern Omega. Weapons officer, release antimatter torpedoes! Helm, prepare to make orbit! Gad and Zebulun, screen our retreat! All other ships, rendezvous at point L2."

And with an awful screech, a call that reduced to ash all who heard it directly, the first of the Exarchs lashed out with all its power and the battle for survival had begun.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Well, that chapter took quite a bit longer than I anticipated. Still, it's out now, and I hope it was satisfactory. I don't know how many remain, but no more than one or two I think, plus the epilogue. My time online is running very short and if I don't get things wrapped up soon there will be a two year delay before the conclusion, and by then I expect I will have forgotten all my plans for the conclusion of the story.

Here's the review responses that weren't included with the previous chapter, plus the (few) owed from that chapter itself. I'm very grateful for continued patience on behalf of the audience, I know my postings haven't been as regular as would doubtless be prudent. But… I'm doing my best. I don't have the free time I once did back at university.

DigitalPulse: I really appreciate the compliment! Believe me, nobody wishes that more than me. Though something tells me these stories would have to be considerably more subdued if I was going to be writing for Nintendo…

Kirby Oak: Or maybe Logan didn't stop Izzy, considering that most mew freely share their thoughts and memories. I wish I still had the moonlight's gambit stuff I did have. I might be able to build the rest from memory if I did, but alas. No-can-do. I'm sorry you didn't like Sabrina's TF, but… if I'd done what everybody expected and made her a mew than the story would've been boring and predictable. Got to keep people guessing, but make things logical and reasonable at the same time. Difficult balance, and it has casualties. Such as expectations. Slaughtered in the streets, those expectations.

Tsaukpaetra: Look, I'm still alive! (again). I hope this chapter was as easy to understand as that one.

KragmoorBithen: I think I understand the feeling of distraction and occupation… it's the reason this chapter took so long in writing. But with any luck, this next won't, since I only have until the end of the month to get things wrapped up. Three weeks left… if I take as long as I did to write this chapter than there won't be a conclusion and that'd suck.

DarkPokemonLover: (not using the abbreviation this time since you didn't like it). Yep, you're right, that is a capitalization error. Hopefully no similar errors this chapter. It's a different ship they found and stole on the worldship, though. Their own ship got missile-ed. And if the years don't seem to add up, that's because Izzy's human aging became dubious at best once she was a mew. That's why she always looked small for her age. So your confusion in reading is probably because of the disparity between how old she really is and how old I describe her physically. Sorry about taking your Mewtwo away from Miya, but… as Sabrina said, she had no intention of a physical relationship. You'll get to keep your mewtwo while Sabrina does… something. Same thing the eldest used to do? Dunno.

ShadowVee: Yep, Antimatter is a hard thing to obtain in any age. Obviously however Logan is getting it in pokelantis must be very different than any ways we know to get it here in modern times, because otherwise such vast amounts would be… you got it right, though. That knife defies physical laws as we understand them. Now, gender among mew. An interesting subject. I don't think I've ever explained plainly how it worked aside from within the stories, so I suppose here is as good a place as any. First and foremost mewtwo are an anomaly. I call mewtwo a male just because he acts and talks like one in the movies, I don't really know if he has any gender-defining characteristics. It's possible. As far as mew go, though… age is a function of knowledge and understanding, and so is sex. A mew that grows more powerful grows older and bigger physically. The oldest and wisest mew of all is always male, and has the title of "The Eldest". Only they have access to all of their powers, and are practically immortal, though they do die when they eventually have somebody old and strong enough to pass the mantle to (or something of supernatural power kills them, like another strong legendary or a special weapon like the knife above). Other male mew are... nonexistent with the population, though as it begins to grow eventually there will be others old enough to be Eldest in their own right, and they will become male as well. Mew being such primitive organisms (in terms of time anyways), I think of their sex like that of a colony of fish: The more dominant members experience biological changes and become males, or if there are too many, revert to females again. There are many species in our world like this today (clownfish are merely one example). Every mew, be it transformed or ordinary, is born female, and lives most of their lives that way. As far as color goes, every natural mew is pink. Every blue mew (rare as they are) represent flukes and biological accidents, and are exceptionally rare.

Now, onto chapter 13. Not so many reviews for this chapter… I wonder if there's any corilation to how long I took to write it, or perhaps the lack of review responses. Either way…

KirbyOak: I can only hope that The lower quality thing didn't persist into this current chapter, because that'd suck. Mew do make pokemon around them smarter, but Jamie isn't much of a mew. The older and stronger the mew, the stronger the effect. You can see why the blissy might be as dull as ever. Hah, Echo in the story. That'll totally happen. Oh wait no it won't.

ShadowVee: Yeah, the scale here is absolutely unfathomable. It's hard for our little primate brains to wrap our heads around numbers that big. Even so, I am aware she's asking for about as much as some fraction of the earth's mass, and so from a practical perspective even if there was some magical 1-1 ratio of conversion, obtaining such a large quantity would be… difficult to say the least. I suppose only time will tell how PokeLantis is able to perform such a conversion.


	15. L'appel du Vide

Chapter 14: "L'appel du Vide"

Logan walked along the huge hallway within the matter-synthesis section of the city, concentrating with every extra brain-cell she had to try and make sense of the warped spatial geometry that made what she was watching possible. There was no vacuum here, absorbing matter from the outside and converting it. Even when there had been an entire city attached only a miniscule portion of the core's energy production capabilities were utilized.

Getting those systems running again had been quite the conundrum for Logan, but proved only to be a minor hindrance once Bit had shut down the program that set Pokelantis randomly traveling under the ocean. Empty every store of power and briefly shut down life support, and they'd synthesized enough antimatter for the reactors to grow exponentially more productive. They were all running now, and matter was flowing in past her in compressed streams, twisting and looping in and out of her perception, and through the three dimensions creatures of matter inhabited. She did not know the technical details behind the column of semireflective, transparent starstuff that looped and twisted just beyond a "protective" wall of lead-crystal.

No human could pass into this section without shielding suits that had long since failed or been stolen, so Bit was her only companion here in the fiery heart of the utility deck. She could not say where this thing was getting the matter it needed to function, but it was easy to guess that wherever it came from was probably the heart of some star somewhere, as the streams of charged particles danced at temperatures far above anything that occurred naturally on earth. It was also far denser, and the first time she glanced at one of the "displays", she thought she was misreading the symbols. No way it had produced that much antimatter already… had she misread a few orders of magnitude?

"Those are antineutrons." Bit said. There were no voices here in the center, which made the core of the greatest worldship seem only a pale reflection. She felt like a wild pokemon looking up at the greatest works man had built, wondering how they worked. Her guesses weren't far from human science, and all of them were doubtless far from the truth. Did Terah know how this device functioned? She knew the humans that inhabited this city had understood enough to use this kilometer-size reactor to fuel their whole civilization, a fuel source that no other civilization had ever wielded. According to the records within the computer, even at the height of their power man had only used the reactors at a small percent of their capacity.

Every inch of the machine was operating now, though, untouched by the millennia. There was beauty here that defied description, as from each of eleven pillars thin streams of antineutrons twisted through magnetic containment with such density they had their own gravity, washing over her like music arceus himself had composed. Logan did not understand the principals that brought the matter here and exchanged neutrons for antineutrons, no more than she knew how to play all the different instruments in an orchestra. Her ignorance did not dampen the energy that coursed through her, the voice of the First Breath that the universe took.

She was older now, as all the secrets the young earth had known taught themselves to her. It was a shame the shielding suits had all been destroyed, and that humans were limited to their five simple senses… because she had no doubt that an hour here would do more for mankind's understanding than any amount of time on Farawayisland. Standing here long enough should teach even the thickest dullard to be curious. The effect of watching the energy synthesis was much reduced on Bit, whose natural gift for mathematics had already taught her what Logan was learning now, though she still sounded… stilled… by what she saw. "Even legendaries are primitive savages." She said, frowning. "This city is like a… straw hut built atop an aircraft carrier… They had no idea what they were working with, and neither do we."

"We don't have to." Logan kept even her telepathic voice down, afraid she might somehow disturb the rush that blasted past them on every side. Her fears were in vain. As if the faint echo that they were alongside so much stronger, truer matter. "We just need to get the device to function. Oh, and… I guess there's a little more to it." She trailed off suddenly, her spirits sinking. She had put the harsh reality out of her mind until right then, as though not thinking about it might stop it from being true. If only reality was so simple. "This plan is missing something, something I hope you can help us with. Assuming Izzy succeeds, we will have brought together a lens, the fuel it needs, and the computer to operate them both. What we are missing, though, is the program that rewrites the world… the magic, I guess. Did the Eldest teach you?" She went on without giving Bit time to answer, knowing what that answer would be and unable to hear it. "The hard part is already done! Glowworm and Terah will establish sympathy for us, you could use their positions as references for the code. All you'd have to do is put the universe back to the way it was! Not so hard, right?"

Bit was helpless. What could she say? The Eldest had never taught her anything like that, and she found it unlikely that even he would know. He had been a powerful pokemon, no mistake… but he was no god. So far as she knew, those only existed in computers, and only Lorded over electronic worlds. Still, she couldn't just tell her best friend, her savior, that the means she had chosen as the last hope of reality was doomed to failure. "I-I'll try, Logan. I'll start brainstorming on the way there." It was a lie, but a lie was all she had.

"Good." The other feline showed no sign of whether she understood Bit's words for what they were, continuing on as though confident in her friend. "We should arrive within the hour. I have sent word to all the Worldships: hopefully a few will join us there: It will take time to get everything together, and the Exarchs are bound to know about us with all those voidspawn on the ground."

"Do you think they would try to stop us if they knew what you were doing, Logan? If they really understood you're trying to save them. You are, aren't you?"

That was a… clumbsy way of putting it, but Logan shook her head all the same. "I was there, Bit. Their home…" That had made her older too… though she would not have traded it, thanks to the chance it gave her to see the Eldest one last time. "Terah built a whole world down there and pilgrims were traveling there from every corner of that wasteland. He made lots of friends, but plenty more hated him."

The next to speak was neither Bit nor Logan though, and seemed barely to restrain her panic. It was a strange thing to hear Also lose her composure, though she was more afraid than she was surprised. Whatever had the power to frighten Also… _'The Outsiders have sent their voidspawn to stop us, and a few have come themselves to see our flight ends. The cloud is so think we cannot see the stars. The station has no weapons… please come to the control room. My technicians did not expect combat and I cannot pilot the city myself.'_

Logan lowered her head a little, though not before meeting Bit's eyes. The other was far better when it came to altering pace, and she did not trust herself to teleport in here where the slightest mistake might bring a few tons of antineutrons with her, without the benefit of a vacuum to hold them. As always, her selfmade sister's skills did not disappoint, and they were soon hovering in the control-room though Logan was wearing thick boots and a uniform again before the teleport was even complete. Bit, less skilled when it came to such things, landed on her shoulder and remained there, smiling out at the various scientific personnel whose faces ran the full range between mere surprise and outright shock. Logan couldn't stifle a grin at that, imagining how subtle Also had been about her species for the last few decades, and how little trouble she had taken to conceal it. What stories these people would have to tell when they got home…

What little joy she was feeling faded when she looked out the window, though. The opening was barely a horizontal slit, and she had to lean forward and squint to see through it. Her heart nearly stopped as she did. Also had not exaggerated: She could not see the stars through the bloated, shivering collections of mutilated flesh. It was impossible to say what they had been once. Pokemon, human, both? They bore little resemblance now, all brown and green and rotten with useless limbs simply dangling, the rest mutated into bizarre and unfathomed purposes. Many of them were bloated, huge fleshy sacks filled with hydrogen giving them lift, though many more flew in blatant defiance of every aerodynamic principal she knew. A few had wings. Logan could not see the Other with them, and she considered that a mercy: she would be much happier not seeing those sanity-warping shapes again.

"I was thinking we might use that Antimater we're producing as a weapon." Also said, arms folded. She looked more confident in person than she had sending her thoughts, though Logan suspected much of that was a show for her subordinates. If she cracked, so would they. "Most of them are as solid as we are: A kilogram out there would do better than any nuclear weapon."

"Except that we would be close enough to be in as much danger as they are." Logan put in, leaning back from the window and closing her eyes for a moment to think. "Bit could probably get the stuff there, but it seems as though they have us surrounded. Unless you think you have some way of shaping an antimatter charge…" This couldn't be the end, not now when they were so close! But what could they do? The utility section had no true shields, no true weapons, and their propulsion could do them no good if they had too break through a wall of half-mutated, half-rotten flesh first. Although…

"We don't have any armor… but I bet we go faster than they do over a long distance. We don't have shields… but we do have the field that kept us dry. Water pressure is pretty extreme down where we were… how different is flesh and water, really? We dial up the field-strength as high as it goes, and send a small amount… a hundred grams, let's say… soften them up a little… we could punch a hole. Hopefully by the time they realize what happened we've reached Mt. Moon and there are half a dozen worldships waiting for us."

Bit wasn't so sure. She spoke out loud, though there were only a few in the room that understood. "If we attack a specific point in front of us, it's going to be obvious what we're doing, and they might have time to concentrate enough of their mass to crush the ship.

Bit was not happy to see the smile forming on Logan's lips. She could already feel the headache starting before her younger sponsor got out the words. And when she heard them, she was hardly surprised. She was in for an awful few minutes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jamie woke up to the sound of distant battle. Explosions rung in every ear, human weapons she could not identify… and much worse sounds. The closest comparison she could find in her head was the crash of distant and powerful waves, washing over everything in her hearing and likely everyone above her. Were she in her natural body, she might try and use her ESP to look out the burrow. Minccino had no such powers though, and she couldn't have changed back at gunpoint. What would she have seen if she could look? Death, probably. But whose death? This was a protected city, but that designation meant much more against the voidspawn than it did against their unknowable masters. Jamie got up, licking herself clean as best she could before heading into the burrows, following her memory to the largest chamber, the one whose lapping water and glowing fungus made for such a great gathering place.

It was no surprise to see Sam and Adam were at the center of the gathering, telling a story to the assembled crowd, who listened with wrapped attention for lack of anything else to amuse them. As Jamie listened, she noticed something a little strange about the story, though she didn't say anything about it. "So then I ran, because I was so young and the furret seemed so tall… but I was already so far away from the trail that I just got myself more lost."

It was confusing to hear Adam pick up the tale right as Sam left off, but pick it up he did. "So I was lost, cold, too young to understand how much danger I was in. My parents had no idea where I'd gone and my older sister didn't much care… the laboratory was the happiest thing I'd seen all day." But Jamie would not hear the rest of the strange story, because at that moment Sam noticed her and prodded her twin to stop. He did only reluctantly, seeming to enjoy the storytelling. When he stopped, the mood in the little hall fell considerably.

"What is it Jamie?" Whatever else he might be, Adam was brave enough to ask questions where Sam sometimes wasn't.

Jamie didn't answer at first, surveying the crowd. All these little, fearful faces depending on her. It was an awful shame she was about to disappoint them all. Still, it couldn't be helped. Her dreams have been preaching to her for long enough: It was time for her to stop running. As frightening as that decision was, it was also liberating. She felt almost guilty confronting the corruption, since her likely death would mean she would escape the fate the Exarhs had in store for all who opposed them. She would die, and leave all these helpless pokemon to their fate. Either that, or she could sleep again… give into her fear, and let the dark consume her. Then she'd be worse than dead to everyone. If she did nothing, it would be the last decision she would ever make. Unacceptable.

"I need your help, both of you." They stared, confused. So she explained. "You're a cure for the soulphage, aren't you?" It would not surprise her this time. Her friends and family had fought to get her this far: She would do them the dignity of dying on her feet, unafraid.

"We are." Samantha said, moving a little closer to Jamie and watching her with a little more comprehension than her twin. "But we would feel it if the soulphage was nearby: Nobody in here is infected."

Jamie wasn't sure how to say it. Still, she did not want to panic all these pokemon. If she admited it so publicly, they might turn from a peaceful alliance into a riot, killing each other to get away as quickly as they could. "Come with me to the surface. I'll show you what I mean… we need to deal with it before it gets any closer to hurting us." That was a simple enough answer, and no lie either. Several of the stronger pokemon rushed upon her to offer their help, but Jamie turned them all away. Only a legendary could fight this enemy, she insisted, also truthfully. Sam and Adam were only coming because they had the cure. Not even Lumine was allowed to join them… though she refused to leave Adam's side until Jamie asked her to take care of their makeshift colony until they returned. That got the little squirrel motivated, and so they slipped away, making their way to the surface.

The warmth of the rising sun on her face was more than Jamie deserved, and until she looked up to the sky she stood motionless on the soft earth. But though the heat was right, the color of the light sickened her even through closed eyes. Looking up, she could see why. Every protected city had a shield, far thicker and more powerful than any individual worldship. Even human eyes could see them when they were active. This one was active now, a transparent barrier that locked out everything the Outside could bring against them. Between the barrier and the sun was a shape she could not look at for very long, a massive pokemon made from molten flesh that bubbled off it to splatter against the shield occasionally. The thing was flanked by a hundred brothers of indeterminate species and absurd size, like the most ancient pokemon of myth. Jamie turned away, shivering. It was an awful sight, almost as much as the large cracks that seemed to be spreading in the shield. Worst of all was their voices in her head. They had voices like rot, with sounds that grated on her soul and words that would have brought a weaker mind to gibbering madness. As it was, this fragile body was her shield. How much more of their interest would've been turned to her if they saw her for what she really was?

"I don't think we can cure /them/, Jamie." Sam said, glancing up and then quickly back to the ground. Up here on the surface, the battle that raged above had changed from a dull roar into an avalanche, like standing under a waterfall. Men and women shouted, explosions from outside shook the ground on which they stood, and people screamed. There were no other pokemon to speak of in the reserve: All had instinct enough to hide now.

"Probably not, no." That was an interesting thought, though. The soulphage was so named for the way it effected your soul first, then your body. Given the overwhelming evidence, it was thought that someone who gave in to the disease could not ever be cured. But she had seen such a victim purified. Could the same be done for these Exarchs? Could they be brought out of the dark and into the light by a strange pair of rodents? "It's me. Stop pretending you don't remember… On the worldship. You saw whatever it was that's been giving me nightmares all my life. Not the soulphage exactly, but close enough. The Riolu stopped you before you finished with me… it's time we finish things. If we don't..."

But she did not continue, and neither of them needed her to. Whether they truly hadn't remembered their first attempt at purification or if her words had reminded them, they seemed to know what they were doing now, moving close to Jamie from both sides. Careful not to touch her this time, though Adam reached out with one forepaw, offering it for Jamie to take. It took every bit of her energy to try and squeeze out a little measly spurt of psionics to make contact with him, and only physical contact made it possible. Still, a little was all it took… once Adam had seen the dark that her soul concealed, it began, and there would be no Riolu to stop it this time.

The energy that passed through her bore some resemblance to electricity, she mused in the instant before pain flooded her body and dropped her to the ground, screaming. Was this energy the same electrochemical energy that passed through neurons of her brain, or… something else? It was strange that any electric type should command such powers, but… she gave up trying to think about that. Her eyes turned up again, at the rising sun whose color was stretched from orange into a putrid yellow mixed with green. Her last thought was to stick her tongue out at the sky, as defiant as she was childish, forcing herself to smile through the pain that made her want to scream.

Then came the pain, as exquisite as she remembered. The pain burned her so hot she turned to vapor and soared through the shield to meet the stars, ignoring the voices as they argued over her. At least, that was what she tried to do.

"It came to us." The voices said, almost astonished. "Lemming. Give it what it expects. We will grant a merciful death."

Jamie did not know that word. Some pokemon she'd never heard of, maybe. But that was hardly the greatest concern in her mind right there, as she floated, watching the stars wink out one by one, never to return. This was the unity the Exarchs wanted for the universe, dark and silent forever. She was to become another part of that world, one more agent for the unfeeling maw of the abyss, subordinate to whatever great hive-mind had grown from the souls of the self-banished legendaries.

"There is much to say for free will." Said another voice, one that was strangely familiar to her. Logan? No, that couldn't be. A dream perhaps… all of this was a dream, as the two bunnies burned out her brain.

"Desire is nothing." Argued the first voice.

"Her actions are more than desire. She brought this upon herself."

"Irrelevant." Said another voice, so much colder than the others. It was warmer too though, in a way Jamie would never be able to explain. If God had a voice, she supposed it might sound like that. Loving, Compassionate, helpless. "Her motivations do not change our course. We must try and save her, and we may fail."

"Rotten." Another voice echoed.

"Hollow." Someone else agreed.

"Broken."

Jamie listened to the exchange with defeat spreading across her face, not wanting to hear any of what the voices said. She was powerless to change it at this point… let her live or die, so long as the pain would end. But the voices were heedless of her wishes.

"Burn it." Someone suggested. "Cleanse it. Heal what remains."

"She'll die!" That was the second voice again, defensive. It was amazing how much she could concentrate when pain was so overwhelming on all sides, but concentrate she did. Her body wretched and convulsed on the ground as the fur began to burn, but she hardly felt it. "Without her every dull spark will still forever. She has the medium."

"Agreed." Spoke another voice, like the first, but much more pragmatic. In her madness, Jamie was beginning to assign physical features to the sounds she heard, and this voice was wearing a pair of thick glasses in her head. "We cannot allow it. Burn her slowly. Let her heal even as we cast off the rotten."

"Greatly prolong her suffering." The first voice said, as if matter-of-factly, though Jamie wanted to scream at it.

'No!' She thought, as hard as she could. 'Don't keep me alive like this! Let me die… I can't! You have to stop!' But if the voices heard, they did not speak.

Except for the second, which seemed closer at hand as the pain momentarily subsided. "Hold on, Jamie." It said, like a comforting pat on the head. "Hold on. You have to live." Under a huge skeletal tree in the Pokemon reserve, her body began to scream.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Things had definitely taken a turn for the worst in the life of Prefect Edward. At least he was conscious again, though his head still rung with words he suspected might never really fade. But that wasn't the worst of it, not by a half. Once the awful presence had been sealed away, his brain had begun to compartmentalize the experience, shielding his sanity from any further erosion. He was silently grateful for all the preparation spiritomb had provided him, knowing that if he'd been confronted with the shock all at once instead of gradually introduced over the course of his life, it might well have cost him everything.

Jane had saved them all with a few keystrokes, the fleet he had worked so hard disarming for the conflict with the exarchs. He had counted on peace preventing the bloodshed before it started. He could never have imagined what the Exarchs would ask. A friend he had expected, a friend that shared mankind's place in being wronged by the dominion the Legendaries held over the earth. But there could be no reasoning with the Exarchs. He had tried, and their only answer had been a laugh. "− _p_0_q_0 + _p_1_q_1 + _p_2_q_2 + _p_3_q_3!" The voices bellowed, as though that were an answer. If it was, he did not understand. Long after, when he was resting in a state of near-unconsciousness in the medical bay, Jane had explained it was the Minkowski Inner Product… something to do with the structure of space? Edward thought himself intelligent, but he could make little headway interpreting the denial. Jane had offered the best interpretation he had: they were denying his request on the basis of the fundamental structure of reality. The simple fact that mankind was a weak inferior race with no purpose except that which its masters set.

It was an answer he would not accept, not after spiritomb had promised the exarchs were the key to humanity's liberation. Liberation was right, but from what free will they had left. The soulphage was only the beginning… death was better than what they planned for mankind. Man's assembled strength had been an offering, but it also proved to be a stalwart defense. At the expense of two of their worldships, the majority had escaped, and floated at the Lagrangian point between the earth and the rest of the solar system. It was a remarkable sight: the ships orbited one another in a series of intricate ellipticals that took each ship into the center of the configuration to rest and rejuvenate its shields before being thrust out to defend the mass. His ship was the only that did not move, perfectly stationary in the center, shields so potent that not even the faintest echoes of the Exarchs could reach them. And they were trying: hundreds, perhaps thousands of awful shapes that bore only passing resemblance to pokemon.

This had been the plan: Lure the outsiders far enough into space that they would not taint the earth, and hold a stalwart defense until they were called back into their quantum space. A million and a half kilometers should have been more than enough, and in that respect it was mostly working. According to the information their satellites were giving them, less than a tenth of those coming through the tear remained on earth. Most were coming here, making the trek out into the void to confront the greatest concentration of military might and (Edward suspected) living, breathing minds.

But they weren't following the plan, not really. They needed every worldship for it to work, and even then the numbers were so close as to make a haxorus cringe. With so few ships they could not hope to survive until the Exarchs were banished by time. Edward knew it, and he knew that many of the other captains knew it too.

Most of the soldiers and staff did not know though, and everywhere he went he heard their cheering as they looked out into the dark, watching as lances of defiant fire blazed out into the night, searing one or two of the Outsiders with every stroke. It was all very impressive to watch, though Edward could not bring himself to meet their eyes most of the time. 'I failed them.' He thought, and not even Jane could take his mind away from that reality. Not even the sight of their craft from the various cameras on the moon could lift his spirits, sixteen harmonized shields rendering the craft a heart, beating defiantly through the endless night.

It had been only a few hours now and already their shielding units were starting to buckle under the pressure. Their little heart had deformities in it now, no longer a perfect ellipse, and as their systems gradually failed under the stress, the attacks from the outside only grew stronger. The exarchs had numbers and they had physical power both, what did they have against that? Technology, for sure… if the exarchs understood the function of satellites or radio communication they gave no hint of caring if those techniques were used against them. And why should they? Jane told him they were doomed as calmly as Ephriam's computers did, and as not-so-calmly as the numbers in his own head.

But what could he do? Succumbing to the will of the Outside was not an option, not now that he knew what they truly wanted. Fight well, so that perhaps what pockets of humanity and pokemon existed back on earth might be ignored long enough to survive. They would remember… if either survived, it would be said that humanity had fought and died bravely.

"Sir, we are receiving a message." Edward looked up from his thoughts, to the new communications officer he had instated since the first had been confined to the ship's psychiatric ward. All but two of his bridge officers had been relieved of duty, along with hundreds of others who had not responded well to the mere sight of the Outside. For them at least Edward would have been helpful for a full recovery someday, if they lived to reach it. Since then, he'd had their shields configured with a slight polarization, preventing all but the outlines of their foes from shining through where caught from light from behind or from weapons fire.

"One of the other ships?" Every few minutes another message would come in: This power relay was failing or that shield emitter would need to be taken offline to cool. His replies were always the same: If even two of our ships shields fail, the entire formation will buckle and be crushed with no chance of survivors. Each must keep their vessels functioning no matter the cost: It was that or annihilation.

"The signal _is_ from a worldship." She seemed reluctant to answer, though with Edward's pointed glance she had no choice but to continue. "The Joshua. It's Erica."

Edward's face grew annoyed. "What does _she _want?"

"The message is text only. My communication's intelligence informs me it was heavily encrypted using one of the Mew protocols, likely transmitted by a SAM unit." If she thought that might make Edward happier, she was sorely mistaken.

"Well, what does it say? I suppose if she went to all that trouble it must be important." Behind his tone was a faint twinge of hope, a twinge he did not dare to nurture, in case of the disappointment it would doubtless bring.

'_Attention all Ships.'_ The message read. '_Technology has been discovered that could be used to banish the Exarchs forever. It is being assembled over Mt. Moon, and should be operational within the day. Three ships are not sufficient to protect it until it is made operational, however, and we expect our position to be completely overrun long before then. We request immediate reinforcement of any kind: The defense of this target is our first priority._' There were three electronic signatures on the message, none of which were any surprise to him. This technology certainly was, though. It was his understanding that the Legendaries, for all their flaws, had contributed every bit of their technical understanding to the war. They had known their dwindling numbers were nowhere near sufficient to protect the planet, and so they had done there very best. His father was even better informed, and father told him _everything. _

"I need a com-line with the Joshua immediately." Edward said, standing up abruptly and clearing the screen of the datapad the communications officer had given him with a flick.

"The Outsiders are interfering with radio, so a signal will not be stable." The technician protested. "And at this distance, we are operating on a delay of about six seconds."

Edward ignored that, turning to his side. "Jane, get me my communications line." In moments he had it, standing before the screen and looking up into Erica's bedraggled face, spotted and distorted by interference.

Erica looked worse than he had ever seen her, though in many ways that only made her look fiercer. She was an older woman now, and lines wrinkled and creased her face. There was strength there, and the yellow circles set into her cheeks did little to diminish it. Her hair showed little signs of her age and was as bright orange as any Raichu. She had a tail too, strong and black and tipped with lightning. Erica was a survivor of the Kanto disaster, he knew, though beyond that he had never much cared. Apparently there were some other rumors that some wild book she had published under some pseudonym had started, but Edward had never been bothered to care. What mattered to him was the sizeable influence she held with the space program, and the way she had been able to get even Legendaries to do what she wanted when she was upset. She would have made for a stanch political ally were it not for her unyielding attitude. Erica had never been one to be told what to do, and she had persisted defiantly whenever he tried to force her into action.

She did not look friendly sitting in her bridge, with the shouts of various officers and technicians sounding behind her. It was impossible to say for sure what was going on, though it was easy to see things were not going well. "I want to know what your message was taking about." He began, not waiting for her to speak. "I hadn't heard of any significant discoveries: explain what this technology is and how you found it."

Erica did, and for once Edward did not even raise his voice when he noticed her company. He did not know the little pink feline skirting restlessly through the air behind her for his sister, not at first. But when he saw the trainer with her… a trainer who somehow managed looking completely human, despite what he knew his sister had done to keep him in reality. Seeing that might've infuriated him in days past, but he was past caring just now. Anything for a way out. His face fell when he heard her plans, though. They sounded completely mad, the very sort of insanity he had taken this post to prevent.

Only a legendary would defend their planet by altering the structure of the universe itself. It was impossible to believe: not even a fool would have held hope for such a plan. He supposed this was why she hadn't named the specifics of her discovery in the message: No one would believe a story like that, no matter how much they wanted it to be true. It was astounding that someone with a reputation for being so wise and pragmatic as Erica would submit to such a story. Lunacy. Not nearly so mad as what the Exarchs wanted, but… equally impossible for him to agree. At least if he kept the ships where they were.

Without another word to Erica, Edward ended the transmission, slumping into the chair as soon as it was finished. When he looked back up, the screen was filled once again with the inner face of humanity's thus-far impervious shield. But it would not last forever, how well he knew. The energy required to move his vessels through the assembled attackers would cut their survival time by half, at least. That would still be long enough to survive should Erica's hypothesis prove true. But he had a perfectly realistic idea of how likely /that/ was. He would not rob his people of what little time they had left.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Somewhere more than a million kilometers away, Erica was swearing at her black screen, Izzy floating beside her and looking equally frustrated. "He was listening." Erica said, annoyed and a little afraid. "Edward never listened to what other people have to say. He almost helped us." The mew zoomed about Erica's head, annoyed, without any outlet but to stare at the various displays she could barely read before settling down onto Alvin's shoulder this time.

"We've nearly dealt with the last of them." One of Erica's advisors spoke up from a huge screen with thousands of little glowing dots. "It was only the airborne ones that escaped the napalm and with the way they throw themselves at our shields they're just about finished."

It was a great victory Alvin knew, or thought he understood. Erica had said that some large fraction of all the voidspawn on this continent had been here. What had posed a great threat to any army was little match for the combined resources of three worldships willing to throw all they had against them. No voidspawn could penetrate their shields, not if they had a thousand years to do it.

The trouble, as Alvin had known it would be, was their masters. The rent they used to pour into the world was on the other side of the planet, but distance was hardly something the Exarchs would allow them to slow them much, if they did not want it to. He knew the only reason they weren't upon them already was distraction. They had not bothered to come, not yet. But if the damage to their forces was not enough to draw their eye than the energy signature of the unearthed Quantum Lens would. According to Dakota, they had only minutes.

Alvin paced to the other side of the chamber, keeping his eyes down and away from Erica. He remembered with a faint blush their awkward meeting, shaking her hand and feeling what little shock her body could give him. She seemed on the verge of tears when she looked at him, and so she tried very hard to seem as though she did not see him. If only Gary's ship had arrived first…

Alvin could not shake his unease when he touched her, as though there were something she weren't telling him. But he had not mentioned it. "Tell to the other ships we won't be getting our reinforcements." His daughter said in a voice that was both confident and a little sad. "Not the main force, anyway. Maybe the other worldships that stayed at their targets will help, but if they didn't leave for Edward I can't see them leaving for us. Forget the Voidspawn, they don't matter. Get all our fighters aboard, and get everyone off the ground except for the excavation team. We need to be ready to harmonize with the other ships the instant the Others get here."

"Will that make any difference? Only three ships…"

Erica tried to seem as confident as she could. "It will be enough."

Alvin lingered by one of the empty consoles for a time, stroking Izzy absently and trying to seem unobtrusive, and it worked for the most part. Perhaps fortunately, perhaps not, his waiting did not go on long. He could see the smoke burning in the distance as though the world was on fire. Flames flickered invisibly to his eyes, dancing in the ultraviolet as they heralded the coming of the Outsiders.

There were three from what the satellites told them, one for each of their ships. With twice as many ships they could have held almost indefinitely with those odds, but the powers of their shields were exponential. With so few ships… Alvin didn't know if having every single ship would have been worth the numbers that would have been assailing them then.

With so few ships, the telepathic assaults these creatures made could not be entirely intercepted, and Alvin knew he was not the only one to hear their whispers getting louder. Three voices that were the same voice, three drops of the same water calling to him. Their words were almost kind, though he had no doubt that they would be much more than words if they weren't behind the shields that every worldship constantly maintained. He couldn't be entirely sure he wasn't merely hearing his /own/ voice whispering in his head like a conscience. '_Join them in the air.' _His own thoughts said, even as Izzy pressed her head close to his chest and whimpered, all cheerfulness gone. '_They will find a place of Glory for me, one of two who walk at will between the worlds. With your help even the King will kneel before their army and all time will be theirs.'_

Alvin forced the whispers from his mind in a way that none of the poor technicians could do, though Erica seemed capable enough as her face remained placid. "Is the Expedition's helicopter aboard yet?" She asked, somewhat impatiently, fidgeting a little in her seat as she watched her crew buckle under the invisible pressure. Having something to think about seemed to help the young woman who answered, holding herself upright with one hand as she manipulated the keyboard with the other.

"Almost." She changed the focus of the display, which zoomed on the huge cargo helicopter lifting towards them through the air. The massive wooden crate was plainly greatly burdening the helicopter's poor engines visible beneath the four elongated cargo arms. "A minute before they're within our shield."

"I want harmonization as soon as the helicopter is inside. Have them deposit the Gate straight into the Arboretum: We don't want it being accidentally activated by any of the equipment in the airfield."

None too soon, as Alvin could tell. The screen promptly returned to focus on the Outsiders, which approached from three directions, flanking them. They were merely dim outlines now, but growing rapidly more distinct. Even he could not watch those outlines for long, staring into the stark face of defiance of natural laws. His eyes found the curve of a wing that stretched in on itself, and watched as black icor dribbled from a belly that forced him to look away, closing his eyes and focusing briefly on the shape rain had made within the reflection, a billion shattered drops like frozen diamonds. It was all he could do to cull the anger and revulsion that such creatures could exist. What land they touched would remain desolate forever, and the forests they burned might never return. How much life was being extinguished right now?

"iA iA, the thousand thousand lords praises forever!" One of the guards standing on the wall dropped his rifle like so much trash, staggering forward and drawing a long knife of hardened steel from his vest. "Death to the firstborn!" The other soldier stood stupidly as the first man advanced, his eyes downcast and hands shuddering as he struggled to lift his weapon. In vain.

Alvin took a few steps back, aware of so many faces fixed on them in something like fear. He scrambled for a weapon as Izzy whimpered and pressed herself closer to his chest, even as the solider advanced, screaming mad words and shuffling forward with his knife. He slashed out at Alvin and finding only empty air as he retreated, every will paralyzed before the Great Others. Every will but Alvin's, who found his back against a technician's chair. _'Give her to them.'_ His own voice said in his head. '_The first of many offerings to earth's rightful lords._

Instead of reaching his hands out and giving the soldier Izzy, he reached behind him, his hand finding the technician's sidearm. "iA iA!" He was screaming, along with words no human tongue was made to utter, a horrible slurred mess with eyes rolled back into the man's head. '_You will not fire.'_ The voice said, no longer sounding so much like him. 'You will NOT fire youwillnot-' The laser seared straight through the soldier, dissipating harmlessly off the bulkhead as they were designed to do. The man lashed out one last time before he fell backwards with a thump. There was no blood.

The laser made no sound and did not recoil in his hand, but the loud thump seemed to be enough for the assembled bridge to recover its composure. "Harmonize our shields, now!" It was fortunate so much of ship control was handled by artificial intelligence, or else it was quite likely that nothing at all would have happened, despite the bridge crew responding to Erica's commands. Alvin felt the sight shudder under him as he pressed Izzy to his chest, sliding the handgun into the elastic of his trousers. He watched with relief as the world outside began to move, the other ships spinning with perfect synchronization as their previously invisible shield began to materialize, a shimmering flickering veil separating them from the Outside. Izzy gradually relaxed as they spun faster, though she returned to his arms when one of the Others let forth a guttural wail of frustration. They were very close now, and from where Alvin stood he could see no sunlight anymore. An eclipse without a steller body to cause it. The darkness was merciful, in its way. At least he did not have to look at those awful shapes anymore.

"I want a casualty report." Erica said, her voice muted and feeble. "All decks, as soon as possible." She looked almost sick as she rested in the captain's chair, as though all her strength had been stolen from her.

Her face did not light with excitement as the rest of the bridge began to cheer, Alvin among them. He saw the outline on one of the smaller screens, set into the ceiling and displaying an image of what was above them. Alvin had never actually _seen_ a Rayquaza before, though the sight of something taken straight from so-called "crypto-zoology" did not shock him no more than it shocked the others in the bridge, who could only watch as the Sky High Pokemon rained fire down on one of the three attackers, which was forced to change course in some vain attempt to strike back. Moments later it was dead, plummeting to earth like so much overripe vegetables.

Where the other worldships had faced a never-ending wave of attackers here they were only a handful, though after being caught unaware once the other two were more than ready when Rayquaza turned on them, dissipating harmlessly the energy that had torn their brother apart. Alvin smiled as the huge pokemon moved in, completely without fear. "We need to help it!" One of the advisors shouted, standing up and looking almost pleading at Erica, who seemed reluctant to speak. After a few seconds she did, barking out the order in the same voice she always used. "All weapons, fire at will! Have all ships prepare an antimatter torpedo and release when ready. 50,000 kiloton yield."

Alvin was surprised to hear Izzy speak up from his shoulder, shouting loudly at everyone… but with telepathic dampening engaged, only Alvin had understood thanks to being in physical contact with her. He repeated for her, stepping forward and shouting. "Wait! You'll hit Rayquaza! Stick to particle weapons... helium nuclei and protons… the sort of stuff that exists in Rayquaza's natural habitat anyway!"

Erica watched him with an unreadable expression, all eyes on her. After a few moments she nodded, and all assembled rushed to prevent friendly fire. '_I don't understand, Alvin. Erica should've known not to shoot at a friend.'_ Alvin nodded, though he had no answer to give the mew. He stood stupidly for a moment, watching Rayquaza locked in physical combat with the larger of the two remaining Others, ripping and tearing and roaring whenever the monster struck it in return.

But Rayquaza was not the only legendary that arrived at their defense. A grueling few minutes of combat later, several Lugia flying together in a tight column like a flock of migrating birds dropped down out of the sky, reliving the pressure from the bruised and broken Rayquaza and crushing the two badly injured Others against the shields of the worldships with wind and water and fire.

When the battle was done and there were three mounds of not-flesh rotting on the bare mountainside instead of one, Erica rose and turned for the door. "Davison, the bridge is yours until I get back. It's time I see these two pieces of Logan's plan for myself. I'll be in the Arboretum if you detect anything else."

"You'll need us!" Alvin spoke for Izzy again, stepping forward. "We found the lens anyway, so we should be there with you." It was not a request, though for a moment it seemed Erica was about to refuse them anyway. She didn't though, and soon the three of them stepped into a huge elevator, which immediately began to climb swiftly through the ship, so fast that Alvin had to catch Izzy to stop her from slamming into the ground.

"Is… is something wrong, Erica?" Alvin finally managed to ask, still avoiding her eyes with a sort of awkward embarrassment that came from being so much the junior of your own offspring. Logan had doubtless felt something similar when the kitten Bit had been when she rescued her rapidly ascended to power outstripping her own. She had become an adult in half the time it took Logan and continuing bravely on without her. But this was different... Alvin was really worried about her. He had to stand away from her tail as they soared upward, which swung around behind her so fast he was afraid that lightning might disrupt or even disable his hologram, which would make things… complicated. He hadn't even shown Izzy yet. A surprise for when they saved the world… if they saved it. Plus, he wasn't finished. "I understand that you've changed and everything, I know it's been some time since you last saw me, but-"

The woman turned on him then, glowering. "Some time." She repeated, boring into him for several seconds, so much so that for a moment Alvin was afraid she might lash out. Ordinarily he held little fear for electricity; he'd been shocked since the days he'd adopted Sparks as a pichu in his youth, been shocked plenty of times when he was a pokemon himself, and plenty more by Erica as she grew. But a Raichu was something else, a sort of energy that few chu would ever live to equal. The amounts of electricity they produced only had equivalents in industrial heavy-machinery. It was a sort of pain he did not desire to experience, to say nothing for what short work it might make of his privacy filter.

But she did not strike him; not physically, and not electrically. "You have no idea how much the world's changed, d- Alvin." She spoke slowly, almost sad. "Though judging by your appearance, you aren't entirely ignorant." Her eyes found Izzy, and for another awful second Alvin thought she might strike out again. She didn't though, and a second later he found himself wondering what had given him that idea in the first place. "A select few had always known about legendaries, and plenty of places had their legends. It was accept their help or sit unprepared waiting for the end of the world. Look how much it got us." Her cheeks sparked for a moment, energy that flowed through her tail and dissipated harmlessly into the floor.

"This new solution… why didn't they tell us about it sooner?" One hand clenched into a fist, then unclenched again, slowly. "Logan has always been a friend to me, and if it wasn't for her help they would've abandoned the lot of us instead of standing beside us to fight. Still… all those millions dead, when we could have put together these few mew puzzle-pieces decades ago. Saved us strip mining hundreds of miles of ocean for metal, prevent who knows how many deaths… I can't help but notice how many of our casualties are human, Alvin. Prefect Edward…" She swore under her breath, not that it stopped him from hearing. "He's insane, but he was right about one thing. When all this is over, there are some pokemon that will have to answer for this. And if they won't hear us, we'll have all these huge ships to make them listen."

The young trainer took a step away from her, back against the wall, watching her with growing discomfort. This wasn't the Erica he had known. But she had been hardened by war during the decades he was gone. "And you." She was still saying. "You could've made a difference too. All those inventions, and the way you understood genetics… you could've cured the soulphage I bet, if you hadn't run away. What was worth so much to you that you abandoned your planet for it?"

Alvin opened his mouth to defend himself, and then closed it again. He could have fought with David more than he did it was true, but according to David his involvement would make the difference between success and failure. Even now he could see how David was right about that. If nothing else, Alvin had been the one to unearth the lens, and his involvement had created one more legendary. Did that excuse disappearing on everyone? Hardly, but he wasn't about to put the blame on David, or try and justify leaving. He could have fought, and he hadn't. That was what mattered. "I'm sorry if I hurt you, Erica." Was all he could manage to say, looking down. "I won't leave again, if it's any consolation. I've been trying to get back into ordinary time since I returned and it's much harder than I thought it would be. I think I have it mastered now, thanks to Izzy's help keeping me here. One more trip, and I should have ordinary matter mastered."

Erica did not stare at this being that had been her father, because at that moment the door opened, and she hurried out to avoid looking at him, down a brief expanse of hallway to a set of huge metal doors and a pair of armed guards. After inspecting Erica's ID, one opened the door. Beyond was one of several huge decontamination sections, a large length of plastic with various sprayers and such. Coming from /within/ the sterile sections of the ship, leaving only involved Alvin being harassed until he consented to dress in a full tyvex suit and respirator. Erica did not step in to assist him, but since he refused to take off the badge and prove it for a privacy-filter he had no choice.

Which wasn't to say he didn't take the mask off the instant they had reached the arboretum. There were few pokemon immediately visible, though Alvin could practically feel the eyes of plenty of them on him, watching from behind trees and in burrows and a hundred other invisible places. The center of the large chamber was well taken-up by the pair of massive objects that had been brought aboard.

Alvin knew them both, though Alvin had spent little time in the presence of either. David's gate he looked on with mixed but overall positive feelings: It had restored his humanity after all, brought him home, and even given his little daughter a chance at ordinary life. The other object… less so.

The thing rested innocently on its side in the dirt, bathing the space around it in reflected blue light. Alvin could not meet it with his eyes, not without feeling a knot in his throat and hearing the poor childlike legendary screaming as it died, struggling to fly and failing with its heart ripped out. He felt a tear running down his face as he imagined it, and felt like stabbing himself just then for what he'd inadvertently done to such an innocent pokemon, so cheerful and full of life. The tree of beginning had been a natural wonder all its own, though few (including him) knew the truth of where it had come from and what its purpose may have once been.

"So this is it." Erica kicked the crystal lightly with one of her boots. The thing showed no signs of budging. "Two thirds of what we need to stop the Others doesn't seem too impressive to me."

"You were too young to remember." Alvin offered, stepping closer to the open crate that held the other object, running his hand along it. The thing hummed lightly at his touch, though likely in his head because Erica did not remark on it. "But this thing is amazing when it's running. At least… it was when I was a pokemon and barely understood it."

The older woman turned and glared. "_I _wasn't old enough to remember? Forgive me for not discovering the fountain of youth when you did, but I remember it just fine. All the shouting… those monsters Rocket made, David and Logan coming to our rescue… I wrote a book on the subject while your were gone, since I figured you wouldn't get around to it, being dead and all."

She reached out for David's gate, her hand hovering over the metal for a moment, before pulling back. "I wonder how we're supposed to alter this thing's programming. The rockets had this huge interface set up attached to this thing, do you think I should have one built?

Alvin shook his head without hesitation. "Team Rocket had no idea what they had. No idea they had the most advanced computer any species had ever built. If Arceus is really out there, he won't let us develop technology that advanced again. Once this war is over… I mean to see it destroyed."

Erica did not reply, because at that moment the communicator she wore over one ear buzzed faintly, and she pressed it with a finger. "Captain speaking." Her face fell, and she swore under her breath. "That many? Why didn't we detect them sooner?" She turned on her heels, rushing back towards the door. "Come on Alvin. We should at least be on the bridge when they wipe us out."

"Walking is stupid." Izzy announced through Alvin, holding the cat to his chest and taking two steps for every sweeping stride she made. "Can you turn off the damp-thingy for a minute? I remember how to get to the bridge way faster than on foot."

Naturally, Erica ignored them both, and when they'd trudged all the way back, through the decontamination and complicated soulphage detection grid. Alvin was not surprised to find he was not infected, though he was somewhat more surprised and a little amused when the scanners did not show him as alive. There was no time to delay though, and this time Erica did step in on his behalf, silencing the guards and hurrying back to the bridge.

Alvin was presently surprised when they arrived and found another legendary waiting for him. He had never met this person physically, but the human shape she wore made him trust her on sight. She was of mature but not advanced age, despite what her grey hair might suggest, her eyes the cool green of circuit-boards. She wore no uniform, only a few pins and badges identifying her as a civilian contractor, despite having taken over the technical station. A hundred little faces were on the screen behind her, each one another virtualized identity. She was somehow typing to all of them, though her hands never moved, thousands of lines of text filling the screen even as she turned and stood with the rest as someone called. "Captain on the bridge!"

She did not solute Erica as she approached, though she did incline her head a little and smile. Erica was taller, and this newcomer did not radiate that sense of ever-present energy that his daughter did, but still Alvin thought her much more his kin. Even as she stood the keyboard continued to fly, and her face changed a little with the responses of the many AIs, all communicating with her with their absurdly-fast ideas of time. All of life must be slow to them, though Alvin had never really stopped to consider it. There were far too many important things to be thinking about.

"I'm Bit." She said, more for Alvin and Izzie's benefit than Erica's, extending a hand that the captain did not shake and then frowning a little as Erica sat down.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"Logan sent me." She went on, obviously trying not to feel hurt. She did not sit back down, nor did her communication cease. "I'm here to let you know that she's on the way with all the antimatter we need, and to help you hold out until she arrives."

Erica laughed cruelty. "That would be quite the feat, _mew._" She pressed a few keys, readjusting the screen so that it displayed a 360-degree image of what was all around them. Darkness, black on every side. They were the eye in a hurricane of night, an eye that was rapidly shrinking. It sounded almost like thunder outside, rolling ever forward with one obvious intent, one that would end with their three gallant but fundamentally feeble ships crushed to bits, shields or no.

"Why are there so many?" Izzy asked, her eyes braver than most as she watched the tide that would sweep them off the earth rise around them. "There were only a few before, and they were tough, but not so tough we couldn't kill them. First three, now…" Her sensitive eyes scanned the screen, sweeping quickly and counting each distinct shape. Many were less distinct, though… blending with one another, bodies melting together and separating again, passing through one another as the false matter they really were. "Sixty-two thousand, four-hundred and ninety-six. " Izzy lifted off his shoulder for a moment, landing quickly in frustration when she found her dampened powers insufficient to even lift her. That wasn't fair… If Bit could use at least a little of her powers, why couldn't she? "Why would they send so many? And… there's no way three ships would last for even a few seconds, not with those odds. I saw the designs when I was younger, when my dad was getting started with the construction." Of course she hadn't understood them then, but she remembered, and now she could recall it all perfectly.

Of all aboard, Bit kept her composure best of all, her hands returning to the keys properly now as she apparently performed some sort of calculation. "Well… as it happens, there comes a point where their numbers are irrelevant. After the first few thousand they've completely surrounded us with their bodies and the rest could do more than apply compressive force. Assuming they didn't care about crushing their companions, it wouldn't matter because in terms of raw force I don't think the shield would buckle at any ordinary pressure. It's their attacks that we need to worry about, and Logan and I have seen clear evidence that they are unable to perform these at great distance. Every action they perform is a violation of natural laws, and requires their concentration, and an exponentially greater amount as distance increases. So beyond a few thousand, their numbers don't really serve much purpose, except as reinforcements should we fell a few."

Alvin watched her with a smile creeping across his face, despite the way the largest display was clogged with thousands of writhing shapes, each one reaching and clawing for them all. No thoughts could reach inside, not yet, but Alvin wondered with horror how long that would be. Could numbers like these penetrate their protective barriers with thought alone?

"Logan should be here in eight minutes with Atlantis and enough antimatter to see that none of these creatures will ever hurt anyone else. All we have to do is survive until she gets here. Simple. I've already made most of the needed modifications. No I didn't get your authorization but as you can see there's hardly the time." She stood up. "I'll be in the arboretum." She removed a large metallic canister, which hummed faintly with internal magnetism. "DANGER: ANTIMATTER" ran down one side, with a huge green display and a percentage.

"What are you going to do?" That was Izzie, asking vocally now that there was someone who could understand her. Bit didn't hesitate.

"Change the laws of the universe… locally, anyway. All we have to do is keep the shield in place for a few minutes, and I've already written a program that should do that. Wrote it years ago, when I thought… doesn't matter." She looked up to Erica. "I'll buy you your time, I promise. Just don't waste any power with the weapons… against these numbers shooting back would be pointless." Bit reached down into a pocket, drawing out a faintly grey and blue gem, which shattered before their eyes as she vanished.

Erica's expression was unreadable as she sat in the captain's chair, looking out at the approaching onslaught. Izzie was cheering "We're gonna make it, we're gonna make it, and we'll make the monsters go away! Hmm hmm…" and so forth.

It seemed Alvin's guess about their numbers proving to be a telepathic danger was true from the way many of the people around him seemed to weaken and falter as the wave approached, though he would never learn what the full effects of the exposure might've been. At that moment the whole ship shuddered for a moment. "Do you feel that, Alvin?" Izzy asked from his shoulder, and he nodded. He felt it, and for a moment he wasn't sure if he was more afraid of it or the rush of attackers pouring in from all around them. He was grateful that the last time the device had been activated he had lacked the sensitivity to realize what he had been dealing with.

Whatever he might feel, it was clear the device had not been activated a second too soon, because that was about when the Others crashed down, hammering the shield with blows before kindling dark fire and sending that against them instead. It was the same sort of attack the other worldships were barely enduring… only there were more than a dozen of them in space, and here there were scarce few.

With each affront the shield became more visible, and soon the barrier was shimmering white light, pouring from the arboretum of the Joshua. The attackers hesitated a moment, then redoubled their efforts, but though the barriers shuddered and several warning lights came on complaining about failing power to several minor systems, the shields held firm. "We did it." He found himself saying, watching from the screen as the faint outlines of the Others struggled in vain to breach their shields and overwhelm them. "A few more minutes and it'll be over." Of course, he had no idea Logan was still missing a critical part of her plan.

Erica stood up, and Alvin did not watch, though he heard her take the place of one of the technicians behind him. He did not think anything of it, not until he heard an AI dutifully intone "Antimatter Torpedoes Away". Hearing that sound felt like feeling his heart ripped from his chest, though nothing did that quite so effectively as when Erica's thunderwave hit them both, sending Alvin and Izzy flying across the room. Alvin felt the energy only dimly, as sound and all sensation swirled in a haze around him. Was the privacy filter still functioning? He didn't know, though for once it was not his first concern. He struggled in vain to get to his feet, forced to watch as both torpedoes detonated and the other two worldships (completely unprotected within their own shields) winked out of existence like dreams suddenly ended. He did not see the actual explosions, because that was when the shockwave hit, sending the ship slamming sideways and shattering the shield.

He might've died there were it not for the feeling of moisture on his brow, and with a moan he forced himself into a sitting position. The voices were screaming into his head now, despite every mental barrier he could erect, and it was all he could do to open his eyes and look. A screen had toppled down on top of him and Izzy, its mostly shattered surface glistening by the light of blue flames jutting from a length of exposed pipe. Much of the crew was dead, and those that weren't were screaming on the ground, clutching their heads and convulsing. Some vomited, some whimpered, and some begged. Only Erica was unaffected, shadow lengthening her visage long and terrible as she stood on the broken bridge and watched her ship burn around her.

"W-why?" Alvin croaked, all the strength gone from him as he held Izzy's broken body against his chest. There was no warmth in it, no heartbeat, and no mind either. Like all those the Exarchs fell in battle, her essence had doubtless been claimed to be their eternal thrall, as he soon would be. "Erica, why?" He felt the tears coming unbidden, and lacked the strength to fight them, even as his head hammered with the drums of the outside. The ground shuddered below him as the outsiders began to tear the worldship apart, consuming all the life aboard and repurposing the matter to their strange ends. Even the Singularity did not slow them for long: They consumed that too.

The outsiders were all joy at their victory, joy which Erica was plainly sharing as she laughed. "This one is dead!" She laughed, true madness in her eyes now. "She died when you did!" Alvin felt as though he were hearing two voices at once. Erica was still there, always had been… but now whatever had been influencing her, controlling her, was crawling to the forefront unbidden. "Your Eldest lacked the sight to see the cracks we had made in her! We laughed in his face and he did not hear us! This one is ours, as all will be! Now join her in corruption!"

A/N: Really pushing the deadline, but I managed! Just one more chapter to go, and I have a feeling it will be arriving promptly next weekend. I won't write anything long here… I need the time to write the last chapter. You can look forward to a more detailed summary of my experiences writing the story and the end of next chapter, if you're into that sort of thing. Review responses follow… I always appreciate the feedback, and more importantly the help making my story better that reviews always provide.

KirbyOak: You have to remember as far as the exarchs go they're not afraid of casualties at all, _and_ that Spiritomb for being truly evil isn't one of them itself. It's a bunch of people/pokemon who worshiped the exarchs at one point, so it knows a lot more about them than regular schmucks do, but its understanding still proved to be flawed. Either that, or it knew the Exarchs were going to refuse Edward's offer of peace and tried to bring all of the human ships together for them to… save them the trouble of hunting them down? I dunno. But Exarchs don't care about their own casualties, mostly because their "dead" were never alive to begin with, they're just drawn back to where they came from and have to come back through the hole again. Really a losing battle when you think about it so far as humans are concerned. Speaking of losing… what was that thing that happened two paragraphs ago? Riiiight… losing… I tried to make up for not developing the tree thing enough by going into more detail in this chapter, though I'm not sure how good a job I did. So far as Alvin's future… since the next chapter's coming out next week, it should be plain soon enough! At least… I hope it will be. I'm definitely staying true to pokemon, I'll say that without any real hesitation, though I won't say more for fear of spoilers. As far as Edward's logic, his goal was to ensure that there were no human survivors, not even a few. I can only hope this chapter was as good as its predecessors… because I don't have that many left to improve if it wasn't.

AmadueS: I bet it'll make a lot more sense once you've got the context of everything to see the hints that have been here from the beginning. Like reading homestuck over once you know what's really going on.

ShadowVee: I unfortunately agree with you that high-quality stories within the genre are somewhat lacking, though I wouldn't be so pretentious as to count myself as having any skill, at least with myself as the only witness. I'd love to hear about any other high-squality stuff that's out there. I can think of a few people that write stories within the same universe sometimes (Kirby Oak chief among them). If only they'd get off their butts… I know of a few more stories that are in production as we speak by a few people on the skype community. When I post the epilogue I should be able to link to them, if they've (hopefully) been finished by then.

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	16. Singularity

Chapter 15: "Singularity"

A/N: Holy crap the last full chapter of UA:2. I never thought this day would come, never thought I might actually finish this story. It's taken longer than my first one, but… the story is also a third again as long, so that's gotta count for something. There's still an epilogue to write, and given the length of this chapter I think I'll hold off on my final story notes until then. If you're seeing this, I probably already finished writing the epilogue, though I don't think I'll post until I've got a handful of reviews. What follows is the review response to my only review previous chapter, and then the dreaded last chapter.

ShadowVee: The power-delivery system we see in the surviving section of Atlantis was one of several used by the legendaries of old (in the stories at least) to make real and lasting alterations to the universe as a whole all at once. Since by our standards this should have taken about as much energy as is in fact contained in the universe to perform these alterations, some science we do not understand must have been at work. When the human population of Atlantis built their city atop that platform, they did so because of the energy-production it provided. This did not mean their systems, their shields and polarized armor or whatever they used for defense had the ability to use it all, though. For instance, I have a very large power generator installed in my home. If an army is attacking my home, but my only weapon I can utilize with this power system is my soldering iron, it won't do me much good that my enemy is besieging me with less powerful generators if those are connected to more advanced weapons, such as magnetic railguns. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that the power systems were designed in a time before the need for large-scale war, when every pokemon was their own weapons platform (being legendaries and all). It did not come pre-installed with shields capable of using all that energy.

As far as story recommendations go, I have no doubt I will have a little list to provide at about the time of the epilogue. It will be tricky with the way filters links, but I could also pm them to you to make things easier. Not until then though.

I've been very greatful for your reviews during the production of this story. It's yours and others that kept me feeling like people were actually reading, and gave me a reason to keep going.

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Alvin stared into his daughter's face at the end of the world. The exarchs assaulted his mind as they had assaulted the members of the crew, all of which were likely dead now. Izzy was gone, Bit's presence was gone, so either she had fled or she was dead, and it made little difference. But for all their assaults they couldn't affect his mind, not really. He was as much an outsider to them as they were to him. That wouldn't stop them from atomizing him, though, as they were doing to the rest of the ship. All that was left to do was close his eyes and die, to give in to their voices and let it all go dark.

But as he was closing his eyes to die, he saw something else. Izzy's limp body was reflected in the screen, shining with the light Erica's body was making. It was small… barely big enough, but it might just be enough. He could feel the eyes of his mentor on him even now.

He concentrated, fought back the alien minds in his head, forced them out just long enough to tear at the fabric that separated physical space from the Reverse World, and punch an opening through. The shattered glass began to ripple. But it wasn't enough for him to leave, because Erica was watching his every move. She saw the change and lashed out with her tail, scoring a deep gash down his side. "No!" She shouted, kicking him roughly across the room, sending Izzy from his arms and himself sprawling on his back. "The young Giratina wants to fly away. We will not allow it!" She shocked him then, or tried. Alvin closed his eyes and held a thick metal strut with both arms and waited for it to pass, letting it cause him to spasm and convulse. As he lay there, the roof of the bridge began to ripple and glow, the steel and stone beginning to melt, falling in huge droplets and splattering, searing the ground where they fell and filling the room with toxic fumes.

"You will open all of time to us. Not atomized but livingly dissected, every detail remembered, and through you this world will never be, not when we travel to the beginning and change it in our image! Man will never arise, lesser pokemon will never adapt from the primordial spawn of lesser legendaries. They are a blight, a squandering of precious energy. An evolutionary mistake we will correct, through you."

Alvin spent a few more seconds lying there in pain, the voices of the unknowable abyss calling in his head and coursing through his body. Then he made the connection, and his escape became more than mere self-preservation. So in spite of the pain, in spite of the danger, he stood up, lifting himself to his feet in the bridge that was all fire and death.

"You're wrong." He said to the void, speaking through the husk of his daughter. He felt another electrical attack, but it hardly phased him this time. Clearly the unnumbered Exarchs were not very good Pokemon trainers. Didn't they know they had a type disadvantage? "I'm not a Giratina. Thought about it. That's probably what He wanted… a friend, a son. But my heart's not in that world, it's in this one." She was between him and the gateway, to say nothing of the room falling apart all around them and the swirling blackness that closed in on every side. Then he felt it, the weight of the sidearm still pressed to his back. "I'm sorry, Erica." She was still attacking, but he didn't care, drawing the weapon and firing several times. The first blast passed through an arm, seeming to have no effect, but the next few shots pierced her breast and then her head, and she staggered, guttural screaming. There was no time to bend over the body, no time to say his last words to the daughter he had thought he knew so well. It was all he could do to drop the handgun and leap across the bridge, over the broken rubble and broken bodies and through the shimmering gateway to the homeland he had renounced.

He passed through the cool reflective surface like water, leaving everything behind mere moments before the room was entirely crushed by the weight of rubble and the onslaught of the attacking Exarchs. Then he was back, plunging into the cool glow and gentle warmth that was the reverse world. There was something different about this transition, different than every time before had been. It was a feeling of… company, like there was someone watching over his shoulder that he could not see. The transition between worlds had felt much too smooth, too. As though he'd been assisted through by forces unknown. Whatever his discomfort might be though, it faded quickly once he turned his eyes on what his mind interpreted as reality here.

It was strangely peaceful. All true matter cast a reflection, but the Exarchs did not, so the mountain and trees and the buildings that had once been there still stood, proud and unbroken despite the awful ravages that had been wrought there. Alvin watched it all unhappily, his eyes watching the shapes of the observatory, what looked like cabins… all reflected here whole, for now. But it was only a matter of time before the changes the outsiders had brought would migrate between worlds and confront him with their harsh reality, just as Alvin knew he was not alone, as he never was when he stood in the reflection.

"No…" He said to nobody, resolved. "I know you're watching me, Giratina!" He had never used that name before, because he hadn't been completely sure it was accurate. After hearing the reality confirmed by what had been his daughter, he had no reason to doubt it.

As he had known, the pokemon came at his calling. There was something slow about the way he rolled up to Alvin. The wheelchair was creakier than ever, his face paler than ever, this strange pokemon more like a ghost than Alvin had ever seen him. Could it be that he was closer to the end of things, in whatever non-linear way he traveled through time?

"I don't know time, Alvin. I thought you understood by now." He felt the old man's hand on his shoulder, wrinkled skeletal. "I can teach you. You have had your time on earth to settle whatever connections remained. Now the Outsiders have broken your eddy and your friends and your family. Nothing remains for you in the abode of men: Those who aren't dead yet soon will be. You need to move on. I know you were never found of our home, but it is the only home you have left now. The reverse world is a beautiful place… I can show you all the reflections places and things have cast here, and you can tell me what they mean." He offered his hand to Alvin, who looked down at the mottled skin extended to him in friendship and considered the offer. He might be the only survivor left, now. There would not be many others given this chance at another life at the end of the world. Even now people were dying. Perhaps mankind's last fortress still survived, but not for long. The Exarchs would get in before the Void called them back, and would leave so many twisted by their influence that their power would rule on in their absence, even if a few scattered bands of society survived.

Alvin didn't know if the Lunar outpost with so many humans stored away in it would survive. Would the exarchs consider it worth the trouble of exterminating? There were no living people in it, and so by their logic it was just a collection of machines. He didn't long consider that. What he did think about were the people he cared about. Erica was the first face that came to mind, but Izzy's wasn't far behind. If he took the King's offer, he would be saying goodbye to the world and people he knew forever. Even if as a Giratina he learned to one day return to the world he had come from, it would only be for brief visits. His travel would either be a to the distant past, or a wasted future without meaning.

There was another way, though. "No. I'm sorry." The man did not look angry, only sad. His face fell, as though some feeble hope had been crushed. But at the same time, he watched with an expression not unlike those he had worn when predicting Alvin's actions. Even now he seemed to know the future. In later years, Alvin would reflect on Giratina's behavior, not finding him so alien after all. Just as he had fought to change the future when he had thought it inevitable, so had Giratina reached out to prevent a future he hated, but knew would come anyway.

"You have been kind to me, and helped me in every way I asked. You tolerated me when I violated your territory and answered every question I had for you. That's more than I deserved." The man rolled his wheelchair a pace away from Alvin though, watching the determined trainer with growing wariness. "I might accept immortality if it wasn't for the price, and your world really is beautiful. I'm sorry I can't share it with you."

"You may die." The King replied, his tone unreadable. "I cannot predict what will happen if you alter events. Maybe the whole of the universe will blink out of existence. Maybe you will find time impossible to alter. Maybe the shock of travel backward will kill you. Dialga may be unhappy with the tampering of others in its domain…"

Alvin nodded solemnly. "I know, but I have to try. I'm not going to let Izzy die, or all of humanity, or all those pokemon… none of them. We almost won… were only minutes from victory… I'll see that we get the rest of the way there."

Now came the hard part. Alvin had been studying time ever since he first poked his head within the flow, before being bounced along through it entirely at the whims of gravity and at the behest of the same natural forces that subject all matter. But he knew the flow now, just as the trees and the flowers and even Izzy had taught him how to make his body stable in the physical world. Both his ability to control his travel through time and his ability to travel between worlds had been tested more than once: How difficult would it be to combine them?

The Fisher King… Giratina… he watched with a sad smile as Alvin built himself a body from the non-substance of the Reflection. The trainer was meticulous, though fortunately he did not construct appearance from nothing. Myth was his guide and his teacher, and it was myth inspired by practicality that brought about the design. "Genius." The old Pokemon's voice said, watching Alvin's thoughts form and perhaps steering more of them than Alvin cared to admit. The impossibly old pokemon… the newborn pokemon… had wanted a companion to keep it company within its world, helping it to pass the eons that ended in a second. But it seemed to care as much for life as Alvin, because he contributed all of his knowledge nonetheless. "There, see? This way your body will remain stable in either world. This way even in death you will retain your physicality. Its all regulated here. Since you aren't true matter, you will not need to rebuild your body every time you travel between the worlds!"

It took thousands of years of evolution to build the body, centuries and nanoseconds that were all utterly meaningless. Whatever subconscious instinct had kept him marching lockstep with the universe was gone, its position mattered no more to him than it did to his guide. Eventually they finished, every detail of the body's life-cycle determined and calculated, and there was nothing more for Alvin to do but give up his half-life as a collection of thoughts and memories and take on true form.

He could have chosen any moment to make his exit from the reverse-world, but he chose a time and a place far far in the past, so that he might make himself known to the rulers that had once shaken the earth in their power. He could have chosen any moment, naturally… but if he was right about his designs than all time would stretch before him. Might as well use his first trip to see if any of the old stories about legendary pokemon were true.

"Good luck, Alvin." Came the King's voice, slow and almost hollow from behind him as he found the most attractive target, a lake of crystal water that shone like a sapphire through time, remaining almost unchanged as mountains rose and withered to nothing around it. "I will see you again, I hope. You will always need to travel through my realm, as will your children should you have any." There was a little hope in his voice now, and somehow Alvin knew if he looked the man would not have seemed so sickly. "It will be good to have company."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The light that filled Jamie's eyes was soft and gentle, a tempering of the searing she had felt until then. The voice was familiar too, and was as far as Jamie was concerned the most beautiful sound in the world. Pain was her world as long as she could remember, and pain was all she could expect, forever and ever. She had hoped for death to bring a respite to the agony, but her minccino heart was just too stubborn, beating on defiant of her wishes. Her lungs kept working too, and each rasp of air caused a thousand new spasms in her body and she felt herself bleeding in more places than one.

But none of that mattered anymore, not now that she wasn't alone. The voices had all abandoned her to the pain, kind and cold alike, so she would've been happy to see any face, even a putrid puss-filled garbador. But hearing Miya's voice… that would have brought her to tears if she could cry. "Jamie! Jamie, don't die! That'd be the stupidest possible thing you could do…"

Jamie felt something else, very dimly. Something rolling her onto her back? She wasn't even aware she had a body anymore, but apparently she did. The tail felt more familiar than it should wrapped around her huge feet, thin and much longer than any Minccino's. Could she… no, that wasn't possible! She wasn't a mew anymore just like Miya couldn't really be there. The sterilization was supposed to kill her, her soul was rotten, claimed by the Void. Was that moisture on her face now, water splashed from somewhere she couldn't see? Or maybe she could see it, and just couldn't believe it. That faint pink glow shone brighter in her mind than it could possibly be shining, a shimmering translucent outline of sparkling elliptical arcs. Shapes all blurred together, but one thing she was sure about was the light.. 'Moonlight' Was her first coherent thought in what felt like forever.

'_She is alive.'_ Came that second voice, smooth as song. '_But not for much longer. I will do what I can.'_ Then the pain stopped, and the gentle glow replaced the heat that had seared her inside and out and left her helpless. The searing became a throb and then a dull ache, which remained in place even as the light faded from her body and she found herself much more aware of her surroundings. The smell of the grass, the sound of a breeze rustling the leaves overhead. The light coming from the pokemon a few inches away from her was far brighter than the quarter-moon, though the light itself was more or less the same.

She saw four shapes nearby, only one of which was unexpected, the one from which the light emerged and who's voice sounded like the pleasant tinkle of chimes in an unseen wind. The others she recognized from their voices and their outlines before vision had even properly returned. Miya, who had been the first voice she heard. Sam and Adam, who watched from not far away, and the stranger whose light had healed her… somehow.

"She's moving, I think she's moving!" Miya called aloud to everyone nearby, zooming up and down and circling in the air out of nothing short of pure joy. The other shape began to become more distinct, though Jamie still found it difficult to look at, as though the light might blind her. She was not the only one to think so it seemed, for the way Adam and Sam stood with their backs to it, somewhat hunched to block as much of the light as they could.

The light faded as she watched though, falling to levels that were (barely) tolerable as whatever magic she had been working on Jamie faded. "You… you saved me." She croaked still lying motionless on her back, though her breathing had gotten a little stronger and her eyes were open. "H-how?"

Miya seemed about to say something, but the other started speaking before she could form words, and all quieted to hear her speak. "No, I did not. You saved yourself, mew. I merely hastened your recovery. And… maybe improved your odds a little. But you survived without my help. It would have made no difference had I been here: You were intact enough to survive with all the rotten parts removed." She turned then, inclining her elegant head to the Plusle and Minun that watched as close as they dared. "A remarkable gift, a gift we need to share with many others. Millions of pokemon are rotting, but with your powers some may survive, and perhaps a few humans too."

Adam's ears flattened bashfully to the top of his head, though Samantha was more open. "We'll do whatever we can." She said, eyes on her toes. "It's just… we can only work our powers on one person at once. We cured somebody… I watched it happen. But there are so many out there… by the time we get to a third the rest will have rotted away or been changed into… stuff."

The Lunar Pokemon nodded. "Ordinarily. But there are plans in motion that would make it easy to use your powers on the whole planet at once. Should we wait, it will be impossible: If the power of the exarchs was to be removed without purifying its victims first, their bodies would remain mindless husks. But you can drag their souls back from oblivion. If not…"

Miya spoke up then, a little annoyed. "Oblivion sucks. Let's keep as many souls away from there as possible. Besides… we need as many people to still be here to rebuild. The exarchs pretty much ruined everything. We need our people back."

Jamie lifted weakly into the air, not accustom to flying after such a long time but finding it much easier than walking. Actually everything felt a little easier. She supposed it had something to do with not paying so much of her energy as tribute to numberless dead gods. "Wait… how did you all get in here? I thought we were… under… under attack or something."

"Nope." Miya said, watching her sister with concern but not stepping in to help her. Flying was the most fundamental test of a newborn's right to survive. Jamie wasn't a newborn, but the same principal still applied. Sure enough, she _was _flying. "It left. They all left, went to the same place we're going. Guess wiping out all life can wait." She shrugged. "The soldiers are having a hard enough time with the voidspawn it left behind. Cresselia and I had a hard time getting through, but we made it, thanks to Mewtwo's help." She took that opportunity to embrace Jamie, who was quite clearly very much alive, rubbing her head gently along her little sister's, and purring. '_Mewtwo's been busy. Had to stop some nuclear weapons, even stopped one of the Exarchs by himself. Him and Sabrina are going to Mt. Moon, with most of the surviving legendaries.'_ She broke away from the embrace, looking up at Cresselia. "That's where we're going, right?"

She nodded. "Indirectly. We'll join your mother and ride the rest of the way with her. She found Atlantis, though I know neither of the two of you will feel it. She should have the program."

"What about Goldernrod?" Adam asked, finding his voice and glaring up at all the legendary pokemon. "If we leave the city behind, and another one of the Exarchs comes here…"

"They _won't._" Miya sighed, looking at him as though that were the most stupid thing in the world to say. "Every single one of them is headed to Mt. Moon, even some of the ones that followed the Worldships into space. They must realize Logan's plan has some merit if they are willing to take a break from their slaughtering. If they win, they will kill everyone everywhere, just slower. We might as well go where our presence will be useful instead of waiting to defend from somebody who won't come.

Adam couldn't argue with that logic. "Alright, how are we getting there then? A moving spacecraft and all, and my twin and I being landbound… Lumine is gonna kill me when she finds out…"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The last time Alvin would ever have to make himself a body was by far the easiest. Perhaps it was the lake, or perhaps it was merely his experience, but pulling together his familiar human body took him only a few dozen years this time. When it was done, he broke the surface, panting for air and letting the faint waves wash him naked to the shore.

There were no lights in the sky here, no light pollution at all since mankind had yet to evolve. Still, the forest was alive with activity, and the lake was the center of much of it. Nocturnal pokemon and insects called all around him, and for once he tried to tune it out, rolling onto his back and looking up at the ten-trillion stars of the milky way. But they didn't ignore him, much as he wanted to spend the last few minutes he would ever have a human body in peace and silence.

"Hey mom, look at this!" Alvin felt something poke him hard in the side, and he reluctantly turned to look, his eyes meeting a Teddiursa, looking at him in a way that was both sickenly cute and somewhat hungry. "Ahh! Mom, it wasn't dead! Save me save me save me!" The thing dropped to four paws and darted away, though the interruption was enough to force Alvin into a sitting position. As he had known, its mother had not been far away, and soon he had company in the form of a very large and very angry bear, growling at him.

At least he could understand her. "You smell like food. Scared my son." She advanced a little on him, and Alvin slid backward against the wet soil. It was so difficult to concentrate with all the stored power of the transformation in his mind. Giratina's power, the same he had used to change Izzy, prepared to use on himself as soon as he was ready. Of course, if she decided to attack him mid transformation, he would make for a very easy meal. "Being a new pokemon will not stop you from being food."

Worst was that Alvin couldn't reply, not vocally anyway. Only proximity to humans taught pokemon the language humans used, and these would never see a human in their lifetimes. Well, except for the ones that had seen him… rather than bother with telepathy with such a complicated pattern in his mind, Alvin did the one sensible thing: Lept into the water with all his might and swam like his life depended on it for the bottom, releasing the transformation at that exact same moment and let it wash over him as the water did. He was still weak, and not quite ready to give up his humanity for good. But he had no choice.

Alvin did not know if the huge predator was following him, and as the pain started he swiftly ceased to care. In retrospect, he would be phenomenally thankful for his choice of locales: The healing effects of the water were rare enough, and likely were what made that final transformation bearable. It started with his skin, softening as it went from creamy white to pastel green, darker on the lower half of his body. His chest burned as many of his organs began to dissolve, heat that would've suffocated him without the water to cool him. His insides gurgled and slurped as his familiar mammalian organs were on the whole replaced by far simpler, more primitive forms. His bones too began to dissolve, gradually changing to something based far more on a composite of cellulose fibers than one made from calcium. He felt himself shrinking… or was that the way he fell through the water, the distant twinkle of moonlight fading by the second.

His limbs were getting smaller, simpler. This design was all about simplicity, and he well remembered from the painstaking eons he had spent crafting it, though feeling several of his fingers adhere themselves together and fuse into a few barely prehensile digits was disorienting. Not nearly as much as the painful stretching at his back that gossamer-wings growing from his skin could be, muscles that shared only their name with the mammalian variety growing and building, far stronger than any of the others in his body. The stretching in his head wasn't so bad, brains lacking pain receptors, though feeling his hair fall out strand by strand and skin being pulled stretched taunt along a surface lacking bones would've made him scream had he not known that doing so would bring water pouring into what passed for his lungs.

The black pigment that formed along his eyes marked the last of the pain, as the stretching that had come when his wings grew was expected when it came time for his antennae to grow, marking the near completion of the transformation. He hated the feeling all the same, as for a moment he was utterly deaf, his ear canals sealing flat and smooth along his head. Then one green and blue length began to twitch, packed with nerves and covered with sensitive hairs, and suddenly he could hear a roar that was more than water.

It was time that washed over him as the warmth gradually faded from his chest, marking the end of the last transformation Alvin expected he would have to feel. It was… different when you knew it was coming, different from the shock that had taken his humanity the first time and nearly robbed him of his mind as well. Though now he was deep under-water in a body he did not know, without the faintest clue how he was supposed to use his powers. He tried to swim as an ordinary human might have, kicking with his stubby feet and paddling with his tiny arms… but it was of little use. His wings caught the water and dragged him down, hampering his progress.

His chest burned for want of air, though he suspected it was for a lack of different gasses than the ones he usually craved. But just as black began to fill his eyes, he found himself drawn upward, floating without meaning too even as the water was pulled from his lungs. He was set down on the shore, the mysterious force fleeing even as he rolled onto his chest and coughed the remaining water, savoring every mouthful of glorious air. For a few minutes he didn't care what had saved him, letting his little chest rise and fall, every threat and every danger of his surroundings forgotten.

"You aren't going to lie there all night, are you?" The voice came from nearby, but Alvin was too tired from the transformation and from nearly drowning to react immediately. He couldn't see the speaker, no matter where he looked. The voice was feminine, though pokemon, so impossible for Alvin to say for sure what sex the speaker might've been. What struck him the most were the sounds though, familiar concatenations of a phrase he had never heard spoken by a pokemon before, but he knew he would've used should he open his mouth.

"Bi!" He replied straining for the energy to stand, more and more aware of the discomfort in his wings the longer he lay here, before whining loudly, grunting, and lifting his top-heavy mass onto a pair of simple feet. After hearing the other speak, he was unsurprised to find a pair of huge blue eyes on his, the pokemon hovering a few inches off the ground and watching him with obviously amusement. Even as he looked up, she covered her mouth with both hands to stifle a giggle.

It was like looking into a storybook. He knew the shapes, but it was still strange to see them with his eyes. That body of pale green, her huge head, big eyes and a pair of wings that beat much too slowly to support the weight of her body. Her antennae twitched slightly, responding to currents of sound as well as of the gentle, rhythmic currents of time. She had a smell too, which Alvin knew he must be sensing with this antennae as well, because so far as he could tell he did not have a nose. It was a sweet, unplaceable scent, like every flower and none of them, like pine and spruce and sprig and every other tree he could remember the name of. "You look like something pushed you off a cliff." She said, landing in front of him and looking him over. She took one of his arms, lifting it, spinning him around, touching his face with her antenna. "Somehow I expected more. An explosion, the voice of Dialga maybe as he entrusted you with his sacred power, at least fireworks or something." She shrugged, tugging on his arm and trying to lift with him into the air, frowning as Alvin remained squarely planted where he was. He did his best to make the wings move, closing his eyes and concentrating with all he had on the pair of new limbs that he had absolutely no experience controlling. He would've known how to manipulate a tail, but he didn't have one of those, so that was no help at all.

"Wait!" He called, when the strain on his arm brought pain that threatened to pull it out of it's socket. "I don't know how to fly! Or… anything else I'm supposed to." Well, that wasn't quite true. He /did/ know how to travel between words simple enough, and that included exiting at whatever point in time he chose. "How did you know I would be here? Please explain it simply… I only just mastered time-travel and I've never been to the past before. I was nearly eaten, nearly drown, electrocuted by my daughter _and _I just watched my best friend die. I don't want riddles or games or vague statements or-" She covered his mouth with one hand, giggling as she stopped him talking.

"Alright Alvin, I get it!" She sat down against a fallen log, gesturing for him to do the same. He did. "I already said how I would know you would be here: You told me. Later in time… I won't say exactly when, because paradoxes are awful and predestination is one of the worst. Obviously you still will, because otherwise I wouldn't be here."

The newborn celebi listened for a moment, unsure of what to say as he considered the consequences of a statement like that. If that were true, did that mean he lived in a universe with only an illusion of free will, where he was powerless to alter the future and every action was determined merely by the electrochemical interactions within his brain? Did that mean he was immortal, at least until he told this older, bigger celebi to meet him in the past? More importantly… and weighing much more heavily on him… was the implication that if he could not change the future, he was powerless to save Izzy and by extension the rest of humanity, no matter how hard he might try.

It was no trouble to believe he might ask for someone to come back for him, since there was no way he could forget the time he'd chosen. He had picked this time with the explicit purpose of finding some of the legendaries he had heard so many stories about, those ancient and powerful creatures that slaughtered the exarchs each and every time they returned to the physical world, even as their numbers dwindled over time and their technology began to fade into myth. "Why? What did I tell you to do?"

"To make sure you didn't get into trouble." She answered immediately. "You said you were completely clueless when you were young and I can see that you were understating, like always." She grinned, briefly meeting his antennae. The result was an… unexpectedly intimate experience, as she briefly met the most sensitive part of his body with hers. It was communication more than anything else though, in a form reminiscent of the way he had always talked with David, back when he had still been a pichu.

No matter how sensitive his antennae, Alvin was sure there was at least some telepathy at work here, because so far as he knew there was no way for him to change shape. But he was human again, and an adult, though so far as his precise age went he had no idea. He was dressed the same way he had the days he spent in the laboratory, his clothing isolative and a transparent face-guard to protect him from the rare explosion. He was standing in the laboratory… no, actually he wasn't. For a few feet around it was the laboratory, but a little further and his desk ended in a cross-section, remaining standing despite missing the other half of its legs. There were patches of forest, gardens of flowers, a city built into the trees, and the abandoned concert hall where Alvin had first met Izzy.

A few feet away, his new friend was sitting beside a microscope, humming lightly to herself until she saw that Alvin had noticed her. However different Alvin might look, she was unchanged, though she lifted into the air when she saw he had noticed her, a look of frustration on her face. "You still think of yourself as human? Alvin, you are _not_ making this easy for me." She landed again, standing up and looking at him intently. "Let's start with the basics: First, I'm going to teach you how to fly."

. . . . . .

Alvin took more naturally to instruction than he had expected, though doubtless this had something to do with the fact that his own mind served as the classroom, and the effects of ordinary physical laws were… muted, at best. After a time, the two of them began to feel hungry, and his companion severed the connection. He was not surprised to discover that several days had passed, and that many pokemon had been observing them, predator and prey alike. All left them alone, and any that saw them were at worst merely deferent. Many were outright friendly, and Alvin dined happily on berries that a butterfree helped them find high in a tree. Of course, most satisfying of all was that he had flown there himself, picked the berries without touching them, and brought them to his companion for them both to enjoy.

As it turned out, her name was Mara, and she was one of the more important Celebi in his life someday in the future, though she refused to say how. "Let's just focus on teaching you everything else you need to know." She would say, before directing conversation to something else.

Her methods of instruction would have made Logan proud, and once they were done in Alvin's mind they were frequently in dangerous places doing dangerous things, though one thing they never did was travel through time. Alvin needed no assistance there. The longer her instruction went on the more he found his thoughts wandering back to Izzy, to the three burning worldships and the end of everything that was evidently scheduled for the time he had just left. Mara was extremely vague about the future, and when he threatened to travel there and see it for himself, she just laughed. "You won't, I know you. Once you're ready, you're going to travel straight back and save Izzy. You're too much like me to go exploring some pointless theoretical topic while your friends are in danger. And… like me, I expect you'll regret not doing it afterwards."

Mara wanted Alvin to be ready for battle before he left, but she lost a great deal of control once he had mastered flight. Maybe learning the finer points of manipulating plants was intellectually stimulating, but it wouldn't do him any good with a battle aboard a worldship.

Eventually he had to insist, landing atop a large rock-formation and folding his arms across his chest, glaring. "Alright, Mara! I think I know the basics now. I'm done practicing, it's time for the real thing."

She hovered in the air, looking a little upset, trying to tug him back with her psychic power. He resisted. Alvin had never been a legendary before, never been gifted at all, but his time in the Reverse world had prepared him for it well enough. It was very similar to the method of travel there, when even time was a mere construct the brain put in place to preserve one's sanity. Mara narrowed her eyes when she felt it, obviously putting more of her focus into prying him from the ground. Alvin never found out if she would've been able though, because she gave up, lowering herself to the ground. "They say an unwilling student cannot be taught. Okay Alvin, what now? Am I done, or do you need anymore help from me?"

"One thing." He said. "Well… two things. The first is the harder request… If I travel back to the moment when the worldship falls, there will already be a version of me there. If I send myself away I won't ever exist, and neither will you."

"Grandfather Paradox." Mara agreed, the faintest of smiles on her face. "Another nasty one."

"Right. So… I need you to incapacitate me, silently and invisibly. Take my memories of what happened from my head, implant them, and send me to the reverse-world. I'm assuming that our memories must be chronologically independent, since that was how I designed them. So that we can change events without forgetting what we changed, and creating another paradox."

Mara nodded again. "Remove someone from the bridge of a worldship in front of a dozen people and surrounded by the Great Others. No problem." She sounded wary, but also a little excited by the prospect. "It will need to be perfectly timed with your arrival, and we'll have to take measures to muffle the sound. A complicated request." She touched him lightly atop the head with her antennae, which was obviously an important Celebi gesture, but the meaning was lost on him. "Even as a sprout you bust my butt, Alvin. But I think I can manage. What's the second thing? It better be simpler than your first request, or Arceus help me I'm going to train you for another decade before I do anything you want."

Alvin's second request was simple, fortunately for them both. All he wanted to know was a time and a place he might meet with a specific individual. Once he had that information, he said his farewells and he was off… to a reflective surface. Even as he stared into the reflection of the lake he heard the shout as Mara left, her call causing all the trees to sway and the leaves to glow for a moment as she forced the Indigo Gate to let her pass. Alvin knew the sound… or had heard of it at least, from primitive village legends stretching back far further than his lifetime. "Stand still when you hear the voice of the forest." He remembered one legend saying, though he had always interpreted it as the bogeyman of another primitive tribal culture, and never really thought much into it until now.

It didn't take much really. All he had to do was reach out, closing his eyes and feeling for the barrier between here and the reverse-world with his antennae. He didn't even think he would /need/ reflective surfaces anymore, really. That was just how he'd always done it… how Giratina had taught him. When he had it, he held perfectly still, opened his eyes, and shouted with all his strength just as Mara had done. "Bi-bi-bi bi-bi bi!" Or at least, that was what any passing human would've heard, had any evolved. As it was, only pokemon faces watched as brilliant emerald energy grew and his body began to glow, drawing strength from the forest that he lacked without his eddy.

The energy found him, and he found his fingers slipping easily into the reflection. It all happened so fast, there were no ripples this time, just a harsh crack and explosion of faint energy as the opening closed behind him.

His friend proved eager to speak with him as he reentered, but Alvin stayed only long enough to thank him for his help and promise they would spend more time together before finding the place he wanted, finding the time, and forcing his way through back into the sunlight.

Or what would have been sunlight, had he not been traveling to the arctic in the middle of winter. As he first reemerged, the wind nearly pushed him out of the air. Alvin didn't know anything of shields; it was one of the many things he hadn't learned yet. But thanks to Mara's help, he knew to expect a square hole in the ice leading to a cave, and that was exactly what he found. It became much easier to fly once he was inside, and he made it the rest of the way to the entrance despite the cold, shivering the whole way and praying his insides hadn't frozen yet.

Fortunately, mew were as much a tropical species as he was, and as soon as he passed the threshold, he found the interior had been heated. Whether by someone's power or some device, he did not know, nor did he care. The cavern was a stone fortress it seemed, or had been before the permafrost covered it over the eons. It was apparent from the way the ice had been melted and the snow cleared that a prolonged research project was underway. As Alvin moved, he passed brightly glowing crystals hung on leather cords from the ceilings, faintly humming data-storage devices, and various tools whose purpose he couldn't even guess at.

After about fifteen minutes of slow progress, he reached a large chamber that had evidently been repurposed as a living quarters, with beds made from still-green plants doubtless harvested from the other side of the world. There were three individuals in the living area, and all of them turned as he entered, eyes wide with shock and surprise.

"A Celebi." One of them observed, dropping the fruit she had been eating and flying over in the air to meet him. "What are you doing here, friend? Our research does not concern the forest."

Alvin glanced over the three, though none of them matched the pokemon Mara had described. He was pleasantly surprised at his ability to guess that so easily at a casual glance at three pokemon of the same species, but there could be no doubt about it. "I need to speak with Terah. Where is she?"

One of the others sat up from where she was curled on a bed of soft moss, yawning before she spoke. "_Her_? You mean the one who never stops working? She's down that hallway, deep into the crypts. If you're going to talk to her, could you tell her to relax while you're down there?" She sighed. "Barely a kitten and she works _far_ too hard. Soon she's going to be too old to enjoy the simple things, and she'll regret spending so much time with the dead."

"What would a Celebi need her for, in the middle of the most inhospitable place on earth?" The first asked, still watching her curiously, though she had retreated enough for Alvin to pass through the doorway into the chamber. It was strange to see these halls cut to pokemon height instead of a human's, so that he hardly felt as short as he actually was. "Couldn't you have just come back in a few years and met us somewhere nicer?"

Alvin nodded, remembering that the next time he saw Mara, he would have to find a way to thank her for sending him here. Of course, it had been just as much his fault for believing her that this was the only place she knew he could find Terah. Still, it was warm enough in here. What really mattered was his message, and there was nothing stopping him from delivering it. "I should have." He squeaked, his wings flapping with a little more agitation at being the subject of so much attention. He had to get this over with before they started asking awkward questions. "I'll do that next time. Thank's for your help!" And he was off, zooming out of their living quarters and down the hall as fast as he could travel, feeling worse and worse the more stone and snow he felt about his head.

Everything about this fortress made him feel like he didn't belong, from the mummified husks of great pokemon in niches in the walls, the sound of the arctic wind still raging hundreds of feet above, and the lack of any living thing. "Mara was testing me again." He muttered to himself as he came to a fork in the path and lacking the skills to telepathically probe for the correct route, he simply took a guess based on the smell and continued on.

He shortly discovered his guess had been a good one, with the faint mews of a pokemon not much further down into the ruins. "Can I put this one here? No, doesn't fit. Um… maybe electrical? No, it's not that either!" The voice was faint, with the distinct high-pitched whine unmistakable to the young.

The Celebi paused as he rounded one final bend in the passage, watching the little pokemon fly among the ruins of what looked like an alter. It was surrounded by candles, each of which flickered gently in the cold, burned so far down they were little more than piles of melted wax. There were literally thousands of knobs and levers and sockets set into the alter on all sides, each one so small that either tweezers or telekinesis would be necessary to manipulate it. The little mew was using the second method, and didn't notice Alvin when he entered. She didn't turn when he spoke either, continuing diligently in her work.

"What is this thing, Terah?" He asked, about six feet from her and the base of the massive object.

"I have no idea. That's what we're here to find out." She answered flatly, before bending down to examine a large dial and proceeding to forget he was in the room.

Alvin frowned, gritted his teeth, then smiled a little. "Terah, I need to talk to you. I'm from the future." Alvin had to do everything he could to stifle a giggle. Being able to say stupid lines like that might make this whole transformation thing worth it after awhile. Still, it worked to get the little mew's attention, who seemed to finally realize she wasn't alone, turning on him and zooming to within a few inches. Alvin had to admit he saw the makings of what the mew called their 'Eldest' in this little one already. So young, but so strong, never leaving a mystery unsolved. Beyond that, he didn't know. He'd never met the Eldest, might not know about him at all if it wasn't for Izzy. But he did know, and much more importantly, he knew of his power. The Eldest had been killed of course, but he had also had huge plans in motion. Alvin knew enough about him to know that he had shaped the entire future of the planet. He had also been the one to suggest leaving it behind, though Erica had stopped that from happening. His Erica… had she still had her soul then? Or had that plea been the void's way of making sure that mankind and the other legendaries stayed on earth and accepted their fate? It wasn't a question for now.

"Y-you?" Terah asked, sniffing at him. Alvin retreated against a wall, though the mew relented quickly enough. "No, you're someone else." She looked at him, brusk and direct despite her few years. "What do you want, Celebi? Why did you interrupt me? This is very important work."

And so Alvin told her. He tried to keep himself as brief as possible, omitting any details he thought could be done without. He watched as the life seemed to drain from Terah, but there was nothing for it. The world he knew was one where his daughter had betrayed all life, or been forced to. It made little difference to the people that Alvin had watched burn around him. When he had answered Terah's questions… all the ones he could without revealing too much, the little mew had finally stopped glancing back to the alter and was paying him her full attention. Which was unfortunate, because at about that moment Alvin wanted to make his exit and begin the business of saving the world.

"Wait, Celebi! Before you go…" Terah blocked his path, watching him with those little blue eyes. "One last question. About the future." She did not wait for Alvin's leave. "Do people remember me? Pokemon, humans, any of them? Once I'm gone."

But the Celebi had no answer to that, and he looked away. This seemed to hurt Terah more than anything else he had said, but she got out of his way all the same. "Go then." She offered, flicking her tail back towards the empty corridor. "Leave us to deal with the problems you leave behind, as usual. You're not the first Celebi to do that to me."

Alvin obeyed, clawing his way through to the reverse world as he had done many times before. It took all the more concentration in this desolate wasteland, where there was no abundance of plantlife to impart whatever energy it could. But where others of his species might not have been able to breach the void between worlds without help, Alvin had been able long before he had this tailor-made body to make the process easy. So he left, stone and ice ringing with his passing.

"That's everything in place for your little plan, isn't it Alvin?" The voice spoke quietly to him, with no visual representation behind it. For this Alvin was immensely grateful. Now that he had a real body here, what he saw was not mercifully cloaked in allegory and illusion, but true flesh. He had not yet seen the friend that had helped him so much, only heard his voice. Hopefully, Giratina would continue to stay far enough away to protect his sanity. Whether he was made from the stuff of the reverse-world or not, his mind wasn't yet prepared for it, and he knew what the consequences might be. So it was all he could do to travel, flying through the warped space where the familiar physical laws did not apply, and hope he didn't see his friend.

At the moment he wanted just about every worldship was under imminent attack, but in the reflection not even the Exarchs could touch him. It was a simple matter of holding himself still in time, finding an empty room off the bridge (which seemed to serve no purpose except wasting space), and waited for the attack to begin. When the shouting and activity grew loudest, he forced his way through. The room was small even for him, though it was not empty. Even as the ships shook with the first impacts of the thousands of Great Others, Alvin looked and saw Mara there waiting for him. She 'handed' him a privacy filter, as well as a sidearm identical to the one he was about to use to save his and Izzy's lives. "Three seconds." Was all she whispered, before thrusting him towards the tiny door. He counted out the time in his head as he affixed the privacy filter to his body, his perception shifting to its usual height within the solid projection. "Two… one…"

Another explosion shook the bridge, one of the unoccupied consoles pouring sparks and gas and the whole ship rocking a little, several members of the crew thrown to one side. Alvin wasted no time, darting forward at the same moment he watched himself vanish. Izzy noticed immediately, nobody else on the bridge saw him as he reappeared from a tiny side-door. It seemed he had arrived exactly on time. Erica had been on her way to the weapons console when Mara's sabotage had knocked her to the floor. She righted herself more quickly than most though, tapping the shoulder of the man who sat there and making to take his seat.

That was when Alvin acted, springing forward with the handgun raised and making to fire, his expression cold and resolved. One shot was all it would take, and mankind would have a chance. He felt absolutely horrible for it, but… with any luck, his shot wouldn't kill. Maybe when they had dealt with the Exarchs Erica would recover, and she could thank him for saving her, saving everyone.

Unfortunately, that chance never came. A mere second from him pulling the trigger, the technician Erica had replaced saw him, bringing his arm down right as Alvin squeezed the trigger. Instead of taking Erica in the torso, she was dealt only a glancing blow to the leg. The shot was still enough to send her careening out of her seat and onto the floor, right as the sidearm went spinning from his hands to clatter against the captain's chair.

"He tried to kill the captain!" The man shouted, even as two of the remaining guards rushed over to restrain him. They didn't get close enough, because at that moment Izzy zoomed towards him with hatred burning in her eyes, lifting him and slamming him against the same screen that Alvin had watched smash her. Glass cracked and came raining down from all around him, even as he whimpered, fighting to keep the pain and the tears from his eyes.

The guards kept their weapons on him, but were powerless to do any more with the mew holding him, and didn't seem brave enough to ask her to stop. "What have you done with Alvin?" She hissed, slamming him backwards again. The privacy filter sparked and sputtered, but for the moment at least the solid hologram remained in place, protecting Alvin's real body from the brunt of the damage.

"N-no!" He croaked, his eyes only for Erica for once. She was on the ground, moaning, but clambering back towards the seat, trying to right herself. Another soldier was rushing to her aid. The rest of the staff only watched, unsure of what to think, or what to do. "I _am_ Alvin!" The station shook again as outside the Exarchs mounted some new attack on their harmonized shields. But with all three ships together, plus the modifications Bit had made, the shields held. Alvin felt his heart lift, but… not for long. Once Erica sat down, it would all be for nothing! She couldn't… couldn't get to the controls. "She… she… Erica's infested!"

Izzy zoomed up to his face, her expression more icy by the moment. "Erica didn't just try to kill us. Alvin would never attack someone like that… especially his own daughter." She slammed him against the screen a third time. It was too much for either him or the privacy filter to handle: The thing sparked and exploded, causing Alvin to slip from Izzy's psionic grip and plummet towards the floor. Despite all of Mara's training, he wasn't fast enough to catch himself, and landed with a smack that filled his eyes with stars.

Alvin winced against the pain, which only seemed to build as Erica righted herself in the seat, ignoring her injuries as she began to manipulate the keyboard. He didn't care about what happened to him, didn't care if Izzy killed him so long as he stopped Erica. Izzy wasn't attacking him anymore though, and the guards weren't aiming their weapons at him. They all just stared stupidly, as Erica did exactly what she had the last time.

Or… almost did. He felt the ground shake beneath him as he struggled to right himself, one of the walls exploding outward, throwing rubble and men alike as the massive shape fought its way into the bridge. "REG-I-GI-GAS!" The thing roared, then without hesitation it turned on Erica and blasted her with both of its arms. Alvin didn't know the attack, but he felt the heat radiate off it, and watched the weapons console change into molten glass with his one unbruised eye. He winced, cringing away from the flames behind a chair. The blast shot Erica across the room, slamming her and the rubble of her station against a wall that was (fortunately) in the opposite direction from himself. The guards all turned their weapons on regigigas, unloading as the Exarchs seethed like a volcano on the eve of eruption just behind them. This one had seen far worse though, and with a few successive blasts, the remaining troops were smoking on the ground. The ones that hadn't fled, anyway.

It seemed Erica was still alive, barely, dragging herself along the floor towards where the weaponry control had been only moments before. The other bridge-officers remained silent no longer. Some started and ran, others hummed quietly to themselves and pretended there wasn't a massive legendary running rampant through their bridge. Izzy was not one of those to flee, watching with a stupefied expression from the edge of a chair. Her eyes moved rapidly between Alvin and the Regigigas and Erica, who was struggling madly towards the panel with her one functioning limb.

Alvin's body was still stinging from his fall, but he began to recover rapidly with the danger (seemingly) passed. The huge legendary stopped where it was standing with the opposition over, the sound of gears and flywheels getting louder as the back section began to open. Alvin barely reacted fast enough to catch the crystal that came rocketing from the legendary's back, aimed squarely at his head.

He was aware enough to catch it with his mind, though not nearly strong enough to stop the thing's spinning, which only accelerated as he held it and the thing hummed loudly. Alvin recognized the Arceus gem while it was still in mid-air, though he had never seen internal shimmering like it was exhibiting right then. It seemed as though an intricate pattern of light was being refracted on a thousand surfaces he could not see. Even as he held it, the stone began to shake, vibrating so fast that a sort of distorted sound-waves were produced. Through all the tonal variations Alvin knew the voice at once as belonging to the kitten he had visited a few hours earlier, now much older and notably male. "Problem solved." The voice said, somewhat satisfied with itself. "Now deliver this stone to Bit. She will be looking for it." It went dark in the air, inert, but Alvin wasn't watching to find out. Already he was at his daughter's side, resting his head gently against her chest before looking up pleading to Izzy.

The mew knew exactly what to say, and even as she said it, the Regigigas's back sealed itself shut again, and the pokemon turned on its heels, lumbering back through the hole it had come through. '_Someone get an EMT up here!'_ She bellowed, in words the bridge-crew would understand. A few hundred meters away, passed the shimmering field of gold and white, the numberless outsiders surged together, and with each attack, the nearby mountain was torn further and further apart, and the shield continued to shrink. It was only a matter of time now.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Somewhere not so far away, Logan was standing in the control room looking down at hell. She couldn't imagine anything would ever represent that word better than what they saw now. The worst part was that this had never been meant to be used as bridge, and the atlanteans had never had anything like modern computer screens. Also's troops had mounted a few exterior cameras, which transmitted their images to be combined into a panorama on a laptop one of the archeologists had brought.

She found herself thinking back decades to her own human childhood, when on a youth trip with her siblings they had been laid-over in a hotel for a few days, and they'd all crowded around his oldest brother's Vs. recorder to watch video footage he had taken along his journey for lack of anything else to do. Everyone crowded the little screen while she directed the craft personally. "We're screwed." Someone said, she wasn't sure who, but she tended to agree. Antimatter had proven to be a potent weapon against the Exarchs, but what possible weapon could their be against numbers like these? They blotted out the sun, covered every inch of ground she could see, and crowded around each other for the chance to get at the faintly glimmering object they had between them, which from here looked like a single pearl hovering in the night sky. Yet as they watched… it was unmistakable… the ships had begun to cut /through/ the assaulting waves, in spite of the way they burned the air and left all things they touched desolate and ruined forever. Moving /towards/ them… the Worldships were shaving the distance they had to travel!

Without Bit to talk to, Logan had nobody to give her commands, and she was far less expert operating the console than the former program. She began to type. "What are you…" But before Also could finish the question, they both heard it, a shout so loud no telepathy was needed to hear it through the ship. It was the cries of thousands of pokemon. She hastened to rotate the camera, panning upward and to the right, then zooming as far as it would allow. The outlines were faint, and distorted by the awful haze that radiated from rotting black flesh, but many of those shapes were unmistakable. They came flying and running, swimming through the air, and in some cases simply appearing from nothing. It was… the meeting of several decades past, but in physical form. Every powerful pokemon Logan knew was here represented… every legendary not thought to be extinct, every fossil and pseudolegendary. It was an army. The largest, most powerful army that she had ever seen.

"The Exarchs do not have shields." She said, looking up somewhat hopefully at Also. "Do you think you could do what Bit did, only more antimatter, and right into the central mass? All those bodies should absorb the energy nicely, and clear the path for our worldship. All our backup has to do is protect us long enough to activate the lens! I'm sure Bit has already put the program into the Central Control Unit, and she's just waiting for something to power it. We've got more than enough of the antimatter now…" But as simple as it sounded, Logan knew as she asked it that if Also obeyed she would be traveling to her death. Any teleportation was always a two-way street, a momentary bridging of the three material dimensions through the forth. The same way one could cause two points of paper to intersect by lifting and bending the sheet through the third dimension. There was no way, no technology or magic or anything, that would prevent the exarchs from using the opening to strike back. Whatever they sent would have to be telepathic… nothing else would survive in a conduit of Antimatter… but the strength of even a single one's telepathic assaults could not be underestimated. Sure, Also was a legendary, and against more even numbers that might have meant her safety. But fighting /all/ of them. The force of will to even _open_ the doorway into that crowd Logan probably lacked. Also was the only one who could do it… even if doing it might kill her.

Also's face was a mask, but she nodded after a moment. "Stand still, kitten." She said, quietly. "I will calm the storm." She vanished without another word, as graceful as ever. There was a brief, tense pause, as their army began to close on the other side. Much closer, and they'd be within the radius of the blast, bodies to shield them or not! But her fears were in vain.

"_Fiat Lux_." The dumpy archeologist muttered, staring transfixed as midnight changed to noon in a brilliant explosion. The shockwave forced many of the Exarchs away, throwing their putrid bodies like cloth sacks filled to bursting with puss (and nothing else).

"And there was light." Logan agreed, leaning forward on the controls and pushing what remained of Atlantis towards their goal.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On a lower deck, another teleportation had just taken place. Miya dropped to the ground moaning, both hands on her head. "Just shoot me next time you want me to do that." She moaned, rolling onto her back with her eyes closed. "At least that wouldn't hurt as much."

Jamie smiled in spite of her sister's pain: She was genuinely impressed with her sister's ability, which was clearly far more than she gave herself credit. She saw stone on every side, well-worn surfaces covered in Unown hieroglyphics. Before them was a huge stone doorway, and without knowing why, Jamie found herself sniffing for an opening.

"We need to meet the others." That was Cresselia, speaking a little harsher than usual, though her voice was as sweet and pleasant on Jamie's ears as ever. Still, Jamie ignored her, and perhaps out of rotten luck, she happened to nudge to the key that opened the door, and she darted backward from it as it rose swiftly into the ceiling. The five of them were besieged by a torrent of energy and light and sound, so intense it nearly dropped Jamie from the air. Cresselia was there for her though, her body between them and the onslaught that could have burned them all away in seconds.

Through the door was a cosmic ballet unlike anything the two young mew had ever seen. Thousands of little streams of compressed matter and antimatter arched through the vaulted interior of the metallic chamber. Along their way, they passed through a hundred different lenses, both set into the walls and simply floating freely in midair. In any other circumstances, Jamie might've ignored the awe-inspiring cosmic beauty in favor of more urgent business, were it not for what she saw inside. About twenty meters from the doorway was a little ball of blue fur, protected by only the faintest shimmering of what was clearly a failing shield. Even from this distance, and with a thousand different colors of light assaulting her, she could see the pokemon was badly burned. There was ash all over the ground around her, though it was little more than discoloration on the stone.

'Cresselia, do you think we could…' She whispered mentally over the torrent, their only hope of communicating under the outpouring of radiation of all kinds. But that was all she needed to say, as the Lunar Pokemon advanced into the rush with Jamie close behind. Miya was still too weak to follow, though not weak enough to push herself and the two quivering rabbits away from the open doorway. They closed rapidly on the injured pokemon, wrapping around her with their shield and lifting her gingerly into the air. Jamie hovered near her, inspecting her wounds. The pokemon's body was more badly damaged than any she had ever seen. There was a bone protruding from one paw pulled way too far, and it looked as though her skull had been badly fractured. The skull was the worst, as Jamie had the sickening impression she could see bits of exposed brain. The pitiful thing moaned, though Jamie could not hear her, not until they made it back through the doorway, the stone slamming down behind her. She relaxed then, panting on the ground beside the blue-furred thing that had once been a pokemon.

'_I… I did it…'_ The pokemon croaked, its telepathic voice not the least bit weakened by the awful state of its body. Like all powerful psionic legendaries, mind overcame matter. For a few moments at least. _'They can suck on that for what they did to the Oblates… must overcome.'_ The one eye Jamie could see fixed on her, seeming to pierce her as the Eldest was sometimes want to do. '_Thank you, Jamie. For trying to rescue me. Also… repays her debts.'_ Then she was gone, weak heart stopped and broken body still.

"Who was that?" Sam asked, though she wasn't brave enough to actually get close to the body, hurrying past it to the hallway on the other side. Adam did not flee, looking on despite his revulsion. "Whoever she was, I hope it was worth it. Whatever she did."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Of course, had Adam asked the people standing on Joshua's bridge, he would have been told in no uncertain terms just how worth it Also's sacrifice had been. The shockwave of the explosion had rocked the three worldships, but done no serious damage. On the other hand, the exarchs had no shields, no protective abilities at all in fact since they cared so little for their own awful lives. Unlike torpedoes, which had all sorts of fallible circuits and rocket-engines that could fail or be disabled by the Others, a direct teleport had no way of being intercepted. Thus their numbers directly in the path of the three worldships had been decimated, and they now made easy, rapid progress.

Of course, Alvin and Izzy were no longer on the bridge. Alvin stayed only long enough to see his daughter sealed into a trama-tube and carted off to the infirmary before zooming down the length of the worldship and up to the arboretum.

Screens were all well and good, but nothing brought the gravity of their situation home like stepping into the arboretum and looking up through the window. The other ship, Pokelantis Alvin dimly realized, had wrought absolute havic on the closely-compacted lines of the enemy. As far as actual casualties went it was difficult to tell when your enemy seemed to be piecing themselves together with the various body-parts that had been flung from the explosion. At least those that had been closest to the explosion would have to build new bodies for themselves and travel back there… Alvin could think of no way, not even with their otherworldly false-life, that anything could survive mutual annihilation. Maybe, if they were lucky, whatever passed for their souls would not be reborn in the abyss they came from, and at least a few would have been killed permanently.

In the wake of the explosion, their three worldships cut through concrete lines like butter, though the others _were _recovering disturbingly fast from what he could see. It wouldn't be enough. Their progress was slowing by the instant, much more rapidly than the distance between them and Atlantis was decreasing. "You shouldn't be watching that." Izzy prompted him, and he tore his eyes away from the battle taking place a few hundred meters above his head and back to the matter at hand, reluctantly agreeing with Izzy.

Since she had watched him attempt to kill his own daughter, there had been few words between them, and they had flown together through the ship in awkward silence, made worse by the fact it took both of their powers together to have the strength for them to fly. Which wasn't to say they hadn't had plenty of stares and awkward looks, particularly Alvin whose species was not well known. Alvin knew there would be quite a bit of talking to be done when this was all over… but for the moment, Izzy was concentrating on the topic at hand as much as he was, and that meant an awful lot of silence. Flying was a struggle with the dampening field engaged, but not nearly so much for Alvin who had his wings to help him (kinda).

The important thing was that they reached Bit. The pokemon was still human (looking), pacing back and forth in front of David's gate and looking more than a little impatient. In the very center, Alvin could see what looked like an ordinary circuit board, rotating incredibly rapidly as the gate's various intersecting rings rotated and spun. The board was not in good condition, and clearly being ripped apart by the centrifugal force alone. Every component that failed brought their artificially strengthened shield that much closer to a failure.

Bit's eyes widened as she turned on them, though she managed not to stare or look too surprised. Older mew were always more dignified, Alvin observed. He wondered if he would have similar composure once he had seen a few hundred years. Assuming he ever did. Now how to phrase the next part. Bit could already see the Arceus gem hovering along behind them, though she didn't seem to realize exactly what it was quite yet.

"The Eldest sent us to give this to you." Izzy eventually put in, darting forward with the stone, though she could get only so far without dropping out of the air, so stayed close to Alvin.

Bit reached out with one hand, but when she saw exactly what she was being given, she used her sleeve instead, using both arms to support the exceptionally heavy gem. Her face bore only confusion as she first looked it over, then comprehension dawned. "There's a program stored in here." She said matter-of-factly, not seeming too concerned at that moment that Izzy was traveling with an extinct pokemon on a mission given them by the dead. "A… huge program." She held the stone up to the light, inspecting it. But just as she did, the thing began to vibrate again, and she nearly dropped it. Or more accurately, she /did/ drop it, but caught it with telekinesis once it had left her hands, listening to the faint voice that issued from it as it vibrated the air around it.

"Now you know." It said, in the Eldest's voice. "I knew none would have the skills they needed, and I could not allow a mistake to be made with natural laws. Or else, your plan might backfire, and we might be far worse off than when we started. This program needs three things in order to run: A connection to the Void, which I will provide. It also requires a specific response to the infected, though if none is provided the default will kill _every _infested individual. Last is sympathy with Origin, which Logan has already obtained through your friend." There was a pause then, and a little faltering. "I lack the ability to travel through time and verify the reality of the events I have predicted." Alvin shrunk away from the stone a little, his antennae drooping a tad as he heard those words. "But I know this world very closely: I am confident my predictions were accurate." Just like that, the gem went dead. Little streams of light still danced within the object, though it was clearly dormant now, waiting to be used.

"He knew." She said, snatching the stone out of the air again and staring down at it. "That stupid project… I watched him work on it for months, and he would never say what it was he was building. Now I know…" She turned back towards David's gate, undeterred by the rapid motion. The gate and the gem both seemed to recognize one another, because the gate started spinning faster and faster as it hovered a few feet off the ground, tearing the little circuit-board to pieces and flinging the pieces haphazardly in all directions. The gem meanwhile began to glow faintly blue, but exponentially brighter the closer it got, as though with its own psionic energy. It was clear to Alvin knowing nothing of the story behind these objects that the two had been made for each other. Bit had to strain more and more to keep them apart, and as she neared David's gate, she found the gem ripped clear from her hands, flying straight through all the swiveling arms and into the center of the huge mass.

The change was immediate. The thing proceeded to fly apart, every one of the interlinking rings soaring away from the main mass, starting with the one furthest on the outside. Alvin landed on the ground as far away from the object as he dared go, watching as Bit had to flee. He felt Izzy land beside him, her head resting gently against his shoulder, but didn't think much on it as he watched.

The rings began to glow the same blue as the Arceus gem, and one at a time they took their place, the central mass moving upward as smaller and smaller rings detatched themselves. Even Alvin was surprised by the sheer number of (in some cases) Razor-thin metallic lengths, separating themselves from one another. Seventeen there were in all, ranging from twenty-feet across at the largest to a mere foot at the smallest. Aside from the ring at the top all the metal hoops began moving gently up and down through one another, humming and shifting all the light that passed nearby into prismatic glory.

Alvin and Izzy had to scramble away to safety, Izzy mewing in terror as the single quantum lens began to roll across the ground towards David's gate, flattening anything that got in its way the same way the gate had chopped many of the trees to ribbons. "I think we should get out of here!" Bit shouted over the melody that the gate was producing, even as the lens was lifted into the air of its own accord, twisting in an arc that continued toppling trees, occasionally making huge gashes in the ground or shattering part of the window, showering them in huge chunks of acrylic and glass.

Izzy repeated the call, screaming as loudly as she could. '_Every pokemon that can hear me, it's not safe! Run! Get as far away from this part of the ship as you can!_' Even as she lifted into the air beside Alvin, she asked. '_Bit, can you open all the doors?_'

"Done!" She shouted over the rush of air, which had begun to pour through the openings the lens had made in the ceiling, struggling to equalize pressure. It was nearly impossible to hear over the din and even harder for them to fly, but they managed, struggling from the room. There was a veritable stampede of pokemon pouring past them, and Bit took hold of the little legendaries, hunched against a wall as a huge Houndoom led the charge, followed by a Pidgeotto traveling far less swiftly than the speed of its wings might suggest. Together the three of them huddled in the little space the open doors provided, waiting for the weakest stragglers to pass, often crawling along the ground. It was easier for the ground-dwellers, especially as pressure equalized and the rushing air creased.

Only then did they step back into the doorway proper, watching as the device continued to operate with no respect for its surroundings. The beautifully landscaped arboretum was in utter ruin: Trees were leveled; the pond was pouring out and down the side of the ship. The ceiling was almost completely gone, cut in wider and wider arcs with the lens, which seemed to be orbiting David's gate in something approximating a sphere. Where a wall had separated the sphere from its orbit on one side it had cut through, and the arboretum's central office was in even worse shape than the habitat it was meant to observe.

Logan watched from her screen, standing abruptly. She looked silently between all of Also's staff before putting her hands on Bently's shoulders and pushing him down into the seat she had been using. "I'm going down." She said, putting his hands on one of the crystals but not pushing it down. "Be ready. When I signal, push that _hard_, and hold it down."

"But how will I know-" Logan did not stay to answer, shoving her way through the crowd of Also's staff and towards the doorway. Her eyes went wide at the pokemon she saw standing in it. She had never seen a Cresselia before, but for once that was not her first concern. "Jamie, Miya!" She shouted, rushing over and embracing the little pink pokemon, holding them tightly against her chest. "What on earth are you doing _here?_" There was a very brief pause, as Jamie opened her mouth to speak. Logan silenced her with a finger, standing up and letting go of the tiny legendarys. "Doesn't matter. Bit's finished the program, and we're directly overhead. It's only a matter of time before the Exarchs attack again: I need to get down and show David's gate what it's aiming for."

Logan hurried off down the hall, shedding her human shape and then her uniform as she moved, preparing to teleport. "Wait!" That was Cresselia, and her voice was so urgent that Logan had no choice but to obey, freezing in the air above the uniform.

"What is it, honored healer?" She asked, doing her very best to keep the frustration from her voice. "I need to go. Nothing else is important right now."

In response, Cresselia nudged the pair of rabbits forward, which stumbled nervously before taking a few strides of their own towards Logan. "I came to deliver them. Your plan needs a cure, and here it is. Bring them with you."

Logan didn't argue. She was clearly surprised to be told that the cure to the supposedly incurable disease that had been raging the planet and slaughtered vast numbers of humans and pokemon alike was, in fact, a plusle and a minun. But instead of argue she just glanced to Jamie and Miya, who both nodded energetically.

"I saw it." Miya supplied. "They cured Jamie, and Cresselia kept her from dying afterwards."

Jamie winced as Miya spoke, whimpering faintly. She had not been looking forward to talking to Logan about her infection and what might have caused it, and was still more than a little guilty about it. If nothing else, she was grateful for the urgency. There was no time for Logan to question her now, though the older mew was clearly worried about her.

"Alright, alright! Cresselia… please keep an eye on my daughters. You should all be safe here… as safe as anywhere…" She closed the distance between herself and the pair of nervous rodents, who had stopped a few meters away. She touched each one lightly, their outlines beginning to glow as she lifted them into the air. Adam whimpered, clinging tightly to Sam as they lifted off. "What, you've never flown before?" Logan asked, forcing herself to smile. "Don't worry, it will get much worse once we're out of a ship." The three of them vanished, leaving the three legendaries alone in the hallway, a few of Also's staff watching in confusion.

Logan reappeared in open air, the pair of rabbits beside her. David's gate had lifted far into the air by then, holding itself and the lens well above of the ruins of Joshua's arboretum. But aside from the music and the motion, the object was more or less inert, waiting for all necessary elements to be brought together.

It seemed Logan had been right about the urgency, because through the shimmering shield that had by necessity been enlarged to surround Atlantis as well, she could see the Exarchs moving again. The attack that had made it possible for Logan to reach them with Atlantis had done no lasting damage save to anger them. Logan could not look out: Directing her eyes towards anything but the brilliant blue glow of David's gate caused her to glaze over for a moment, frozen in horror at what she saw. There was no parallel for the depravity and sanity-destroying nightmare that raged outside, where the exarchs surged forward as rapidly as they could towards the shield she knew could not survive even a single blow when stretched so thin. Even as she watched she found herself transfixed, unable to look away from the shapes that _should not be_. The pokemon outside were fighting valiantly, but for the most part the exarchs simply ignored them, concentrating more of their number towards the outside so that the pokemon there could make no forward progress while their own forces closer to the center surged forward with renewed vigor. Those that had been badly injured by the explosion were simply torn apart and devoured by their fellows, bloated bodies growing fewer but stronger with every passing moment.

"Logan! Logan, we're falling!" She heard a little rodent voice shout, and she looked away, catching herself and the pair of pokemon before they had dropped too far. "S-sorry…" She muttered, looking away from the oncoming tide and back to the central control unit. However bleak her surroundings, she had to act as though she was somewhere peaceful and safe, ignoring all outside threats. The way to defend their ship was in front of her now: There was no point in wasting her attention anywhere else.

As Logan reached the device, she closed her eyes, shouting as loud as she could with her mental voice, directing it at the gem that burned like a blue sun. "TERAH! ADRIAN, ELDEST!" She called, going through every one of his names that she knew, and others that were less vocal. She shouted his scent, the look of his face, his body… everything she knew.

For one awful moment there was no response, and Logan's heart fell so far she began to sink through the air again. The moment did not last, though. Beside her in the air it seemed as though another singularity had been born, all matter and light that neared it drawn in by its invisible gravity, rendering the center nothing more than a mass of swirling blackness. It was a hole in the world, and Logan knew exactly where it went. She could almost see the Eldest's copy of the earth, an orbiting replica of the world he knew within a sea of madness and pain. She saw nothing with her eyes open, but with them closed she could sense his presence, the same ghostly after-image the exarchs themselves took before repurposing matter to their use. He spoke in an echo, an echo that reflected badly on his health and sanity. Her image of him was… unhealthy, fur mottled and the length of one paw outstripping another. As she had known it would, the abyss had warped even him, though she was surprised by how little damage it had done after so long. "I have been waiting." He said, his voice shaky and unsteady, like an old man. "So long I waited. We're ready."

Logan had to fight the urge to talk with him, to ask him how well his little colony had survived and if he was happy. But she could guess the answers, and there was no time. Not even for telepathy. The next name hovered in her mind a moment before she said it, and her fear quickly mounted. The Eldest had been well known to her, and more than likely Bit had incorporated something into the program to make contacting him easier. Even if she hadn't, so many exarchs on earth meant the veil was thin enough for him to cross. But how was she supposed to reach glowworm, a tiny little computer-program hiding deep under the earth in a shell that intercepted all of her powers? Had Bit worked that into her program too? She supposed it was possible, though she couldn't imagine where her friend had found the time.

The second voice answered though, without the slightest delay. Glowworm sounded different, just as the Eldest had seemed changed by his experience. They had traveled to opposite ends of creation. Whereas Terah had been weakened and drained to near-madness by his traveling, the voice that came from the SAM unit was clear, crisp, and alive. Much moreso than she had ever seemed before. She sounded… more like the Eldest than Terah, her voice echoing with the echoes of eons. "Logan. I was afraid you had been harmed. I am ready." "We are ready." Agreed countless others. There was no visual representation of Glowworm's presence, but she heard them nonetheless, just as every living thing in the vicinity heard them, voiced with their own thoughts.

That was what the program needed to run, and Logan could feel David's gate expanding and contracting much more rapidly than usual, as though impatient to get underway. All it wanted was fuel, though. Logan could have told it to start, were it not for the cure.

She looked down at the pair, as though expectant. "Well? Let's see what my daughters were talking about! And… quickly…"

This was it, Adam knew. The time he had prepared himself for, in the instant that the universe itself had been open to him in the code that made his own brain. He wished he had Ion's company now at the end to help him. At that moment he felt Samantha squeezing one of his paws, and he nodded. It was far too loud to talk, with the bellows of the exarchs and the shouts of pokemon far away, the music of the huge flying rings and the rush of air. But there was no need for words between them, as there never had been. They were twin souls, or one soul, he wasn't sure. If Samantha thought she could do it, than he could. That did not mean it was an easy process, though.

Even if their only concerns had been the fear of falling, the sound and the awful things their eyes just blurred together into black blobs, it would have been hard enough, but even that did not mention the most important concern. Adam and Samantha had **no **idea how to actually initiate what they did. It was an automatic reaction to the influence of the exarchs on their world. On the other hand, all they would have to do was wait a few moments and doubtless there would be plenty of exarchs to target… but even if the Outsiders were powerless to harm David's gate or the lens, the rest of them wouldn't be so lucky. They needed something, and they needed it now.

Samantha was the one to see it, gesturing frenziedly at the element they had been completely stupid not to see. Terah… though they did not know that name, or even what he was… it was impossible to deny that he had more of the Exarchs influence than anything else here. Of course they couldn't near him without being torn apart, but perhaps they would not need to.

BANG! The outsiders crashed against the shield, lashing out with black lightning that any watching the battle would've seen melt the flesh from pokemon and human alike as their essence was drawn down and consumed. The shield held… for the first blow, though the little distorted pearl of light seemed crossed by a thousand glowing fractures. Through each pale smoke began to issue as the influence of the outside grew stronger, and soon the shield was flickering, only seconds from dying. There would not be a second chance.

Adam and Samantha both fixed their eyes on the hole in the sky the Eldest had made, imagining that it was instead a rotting human body with the soul snatched away. He saw the growths forming on its chest, the putrid pustules dripping from its head and several of its teeth missing as it shambled aimlessly, with no purpose other than the ones the exarchs gave it. He pictured it with the face of his friends, his relatives… the professor on the head of the oversight committee, the cleaning lady. Desperate. Then… both of their eyes closed… they heard the voice of the Outsiders for the first time, rumbling deep. "Come join the end." They called, in a voice that would have turned their minds to sludge had they not been specifically prepared to resist the powers of the void. "All will be one in death. The mistake of life will continue no longer."

That did it. Adam and Samantha froze as white, electrical energy lanced between them, thousands of little feelers reaching out in all directions with the impossible desire to cleanse everything that surrounded them. It was time to cleanse the earth, and they would be the ones to do it. One such feeler reached straight into the CCD, and the device seemed to reach back through it, drawing Adam and Samantha into itself as it had done with the Eldest's opening and (presumably) Glowworm's presence as well.

Logan was bleeding by then, the exarchs telepathic attacks blasting through the shield at her unchallenged and piercing her own protection as though it were so much cardboard. Logan's eyes felt like they were going to burst, and as though all the air were being drawn from her lungs. Still, she had a little strength left. Perhaps just enough… '_BENTLY, NOW!_' She called mentally, not caring if it was the last thought she ever transmitted. '_SEND IT __**ALL**__!_'

He did. Or someone did… right above them, Logan watched as more energy than their star would ever produce began to cascade down. The shields were gone then, the exarchs swarming down on them on all directions. Some were caught between the thousand spirals of matter, and those became bonfires, each one an explosion of neutrinos and heat and light. Rather than destroying the planet, each explosion became warped and twisted as though stretched by some post-production camera blur, struggling to escape but being drawn slowly, irresistibly downward into the lens. Logan found air rushing past her briefly, and suddenly she was in Bit's arms, cradling her hurt and injured body as they all looked up. "You're just in time." She said, forcing a smile. "You nearly missed it."

Whatever she might've said next, Logan did not hear, and considering the circumstances, didn't much care. David's gate had what it needed, its parts moving up and down so rapidly her eyes could not follow them. A high pitched whine began above them, rapidly oscillating up and down every auditory spectrum as the lens began to glow brighter. Every second more of the antimatter reached it and its orbital period around David's gate decreased, bathing them all in soft blue radiance that shone brighter than the sun.

The Great Others had no concept of self-preservation, and so they did not flee as the light began to burn them away. They fell like molten rain from the sky, splattering Mt. Moon like water-balloons filled with flesh so rotten it was liquid. But this was only the faintest beginnings of what the device would do. Soon the lens was nothing but a blur, orbiting like an electron around the nucleus that was the gate. The light behaved nothing like ordinary photons, passing through everything like neutrinos and with the behavioral properties of quarks, traveling the length of the universe without any delay proportional to distance traversed. Anywhere and everywhere the Exarchs' bodies burned, their spawn dropping motionless like the discarded tools and puppets they were. Everyone, even the blind, saw the light, and they all heard the sound. It could not be described in words, though Logan would always reflect that it sounded like the universe letting out its breath, a deep sigh of tension finally released.

"It's time, Logan." It was impossible to see when all the world was filled with blue… no, white now, but she could hear alright, over the sound that had not been heard since the Origin. She knew the voice at once, just as she had known it when it had first spoke, sounding in her ears. "It's gone. The void is empty, and soon it won't exist, false vacuum closed forever." His voice wasn't thin and raspy as it had been before. It sounded strong again, confident. And happy, which surprised her most of all. "So long, Logan. But not goodbye."

Logan could not see it, but she could feel herself crying, struggling to escape Bit's arms so she could stop him. "N-no! Don't go, Terah! Not… not without me…"

She felt herself regarded for a moment, as though there were a million eyes on her. For all she knew, in her blindness, there might have been. But all the worlds were blind just then, so her symptoms were not unique. In the years to come many would speak of such experiences, as though their dead friends and pokemon had been with them in those moments.

Then the moments passed, and the eyes left her. "Not yet." Was the answer, though she could not have been sure if was the Eldest who have that answer. "You have work to do." She felt as though she had not been the only one to protest being left behind, though she had a feeling there were not many who had asked the Eldest. "Soon."

The light was fading, and as the luminance gradually faded to a dull glow, it seemed the world was on fire. Every living thing, every object burned. Logan felt as though the life were being drawn from her, and she heard the little voice still begging in the back of her mind. 'No, don't go.' It said. 'Please don't go.' But the device did not listen. The antimatter was gone now, the lens beginning to slow in the air and David's gate reassembling itself from the interlocking rings. "Sam and Adam!" Logan exclaimed, forcing herself into a sitting position. "Bit… can you catch them?" Her friend was still looking up, eyes huge as she took in the dawn of a new world, a new universe even. There was nothing at all strange about the sunlight that poured over the horizon, lighting the sky a hundred different shades of crimson and gold.

David's gate and the lens began to descend rapidly, soaring past the ship towards the ground, though Logan knew neither would be impacted in the least by the fall. There was a brief explosion of air and suddenly there was another pokemon in bit's arms with her… just one. And she was already crying. "Adam…" She sobbed into Logan's fur, not caring who saw her. "He's gone. Gone…"

37


	17. Epilogue

Epilogue

With so much of the earth in ruin and Mt. Moon more thoroughly destroyed than anywhere else, it seemed only natural to set down there. The decision was made easier by the fact that there was no enemy anywhere left to fight. With the exception of a few private citizens turned raider for survival, the danger to the world had passed.

Of course, the news was not all good. A handful of the so-called safe cities had fallen before the Exarchs, though far more significant in terms of death-toll was the destruction of the twelve extra-orbital worldships, lost with all hands at point L2 relative to the earth and the sun. Even more than a month after hostilities were over there were no conclusive reports about casualties, though most estimates put the number somewhere between .7 -1.4 Billion humans, and ten times as many pokemon. Those numbers also did not count all those taken in mind alone to lunar storage, whose bodies were clinically dead and who would remain in storage until there was a way to revive them and (more importantly) a way to feed and supply them.

There were seven surviving worldships in all, three of which had been there for the final siege but several more that had fought to defend their assignments (usually the cities that had built them and provided crews) to the very end. Over the coming months, these few worldships and the small number of civilized pockets that had survived would become beacons of civilization in a world whose infrastructure had almost completely collapsed. It was fortunate the worldships had been designed with this specific purpose in mind, though doubtless many were already growing tired of the reconstituted algae that made for much of the diet.

For most that were transformed either partly or completely as part of the soulphage inoculation program, there was no way yet to be changed back, and patience was the only option. The custom-engineered retrovirus caused dangerous complications when used more than once on the same individual, though it was estimated that in a decade or so there would be options available. For at least one transformed individual though, special provisions were made.

In Logan's mind, getting enough resources together to transform Samantha back into the human she had been was small repayment for the loss her twin, but it was the only thing of any substance they had to give her.

It was Logan who performed the procedure, a few days after the Worldships had been securely landed and the dangerous singularities that had previously powered them artificially collapsed. Samantha was alone in a set of empty quarters when Logan came to her, along with Lumine that had been brought up as Samantha's request. She stood back and waited for the pair to embrace, and kept her distance as the squirrel jumped around in agitation, shocking things as she learned of Adam's death.

She calmed down, eventually, to Logan's great relief, and only then did she advance, holding the backpack filled with the other things Samantha had requested. "Are you ready, Sam?" Logan asked, gently shutting the door behind her as she entered. "I practiced all morning: I don't think I'm going to get much better." She was pleasantly surprised with how skilled she had become since the day the Eldest had himself transformed her. Of course she wasn't going to be doing anything so complicated for Samantha. Humans were, biologically, much simpler creatures, with bodies much more forgiving of minor miscalculations that would have killed a mew.

She didn't intend to make any though, and had brought along a sizeable chunk of moonstone to amplify her own abilities and be sure that nothing went wrong, close to her neck on a little gold chain. "I've been ready for a month, Logan." Answered the Plusle, sitting down on the edge of the cot with her little legs hanging off.

Logan set the backpack down on the floor, sitting down beside her. "Yes, I guess you have. But these things take time. The planet can't be cleaned-up overnight, and there's no telling how much danger you might be in if you go too far. You know there aren't that many gyms still running, right? And many of the towns and remote pokemon centers are empty, and…"

Sam's cheeks sparked, silencing her. "Yeah, I know all of that." She sighed. "But that doesn't change what I want to do."

Logan reached out, stroking her head as gently as she could. "You sure you won't reconsider? I have a friend in the technical department who could really use someone with your level of computer skills."

"Adam's computer skills" She interrupted. " That was never my life… I'm just the copy. None of my memories are real… even if any of Adam's friends and family survived, none of them will know me. I'm a stranger and I wasn't even born." She shook her head, standing back up. "Look, could you just change me back? I can handle the other details myself."

The currently-human mew nodded reluctantly, standing again. "Alright Sam. I just hope you know what you're doing." Logan removed the moonstone from her neck, closing her eyes as she focused on it. The thing began glowing faintly blue in her hands, not unlike its perfect cousin had done a month ago. Logan had been preparing for this moment… she was not the Eldest, with powers enough to easily create a body for another from nothing. But she had Adam's human genetics on file, so all she really had to do was adjust the length of the junk DNA for the age Samantha had specified and account for the fact that the Plusle was of course, female. "One last time, just to make sure I got it right. Completely human, you don't want any pokemon features. Female, about age sixteen. Now are you really sure about this? Most people won't ever get a chance to change details like this about themselves, and I know you were male before your transformation…"

"Adam was male." The pokemon corrected. "Not me. I'm his clone. Maybe you could use your magic to make me like him, but that's not what I want. I'm not gonna try to copy him. I wanted to be him once, when we first changed, but I don't want that anymore. I want to be myself… not a second-rate copy. I have to focus on the things that make me different from him, and that's one of the easiest. Even if I… don't know anything about it…" She trailed off, looking nervously at her feet. Even as she stood there, Lumine darted up to her, licking at her side. She tried to ignore it. "Please… all of that's right. Was there anything else?"

Logan went over a few other biological details, explaining that it might take several days before she felt normal in a new body, especially since this was not one she remembered using before. And of course there was the matter of Logan being entirely unsure of how old she /really/ was, on account of her creation being entirely unique. Had the burden of years been split between Adams? Copied, or was she created like a newborn? As such, she could not tell Samantha if she would live a normal life from the age she had specified or simply drop dead in her prime from unknowable genetic complications.

"Alright then, Samantha. Just… close your eyes. I've never done this to somebody without the Eldest's help before." She tried to sound confident, but… wasn't sure how well she managed to come across as such when she didn't feel it.

Sam lept down onto the ground then did as Logan had said, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. The first thing she felt was the warmth in the tips of her paws, spreading up her body. Her body seemed humanoid enough when she stood on her hindpaws, and that was what she did as the transformation began to take effect. She rose rapidly, the air rushing past her fur as she grew larger. There was no pain, only warmth that grew more intense as it spread. She felt as her insides gradually moved upward with the new bodily structure, her ribs closing around them as they became more compact horizontally but stretched vertically.

She kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, but even without looking she could feel her fur falling out in huge clumps now, replaced by smooth skin that had never seen direct sunlight before. Her ears had always been both gigantic and quite sensitive, but the rumble of distant reactors gradually faded as her they sunk down almost completely. It was about then that Sam began to panic… whatever her memories might say, the only experiences that felt real had begun the moment she was an animal… being a pokemon was the only life she knew. Being so big, so naked, so vulnerable… it was wrong! What if she didn't know how to talk when she was human? Would they lock her away like someone insane?

Samantha whimpered, and what was left of her electrical energy dispersed in wide arcs, soaring through the air and nearly into Logan, who had to dodge out of the way. Lumine intercepted much of it harmlessly, and the rest didn't do any major harm. Still, Logan remained safely further away as Sam's limbs (legs especially) stretched in proportion to the rest of her body, lifting her even taller. Her hindpaws became simian and clumsy even as her forepaws, a pair of dainty feet that was swiftly matched by her hands, small but otherwise totally ordinary. Her hair grew long, gradually lengthening as it fell past her shoulders, soft yellow streaked with an unnatural but unmistakably biological crimson pigment. Hair was what Logan might call her own personal weakness… she hadn't even bothered considering what Adam's hair-color had been. The weight that developed on Sam's chest was unexpected too, from both her pokemon memories and her human ones, though she was young enough that it wasn't as big a deal as it might've been.

With the heat fading, she was very done, and very cold. But Logan had thought of that of course, and the mew tossed the contents of the backpack to her piece by piece, starting with the underclothes. Those she needed a little help with, but the rest was simple enough. When she was done, Samantha looked exactly as one might expect a young pokemon trainer to look: all short skirts and pastels and pokeball logos. As for her pokemon… she scooped Lumine into her arms, unphased by the energy that briefly coursed through her.

Logan watched with a smile, amazed at the speed Samantha was adjusting. Maybe the girl had been sure about her future after all. She sure looked like a trainer, once she had shown her how to braid her hair. She even acted like one, playing with Lumine in their room. As she left, she handed Samantha the moonstone on the chain, managing to keep the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry for the way we all used you two." She had said. "If you ever need anything else, you get in contact with me. I know people." Then she was gone, down the hall and out of Samantha's life. Logan had never known her, never known her brother, but she had a feeling the both of them had more than enough legendary influence in their lives. So what if she thought it was crazy to try and be a pokemon trainer on a world that had just been ravaged by a war with the abyss? So what if pokemon were scarce, and trainers scarcer? That wasn't her business. If nothing else, Samantha had her own life now. Let her discover that for herself.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There was one specific matter with which Logan herself had quite a great deal of involvement, though: What to do with Pokelantis. It had been obvious before Also's death. As promised, she would take possession of the platform to do with as she wished. Logan had no idea what that might be, but didn't doubt that Also would have found a use for it. With her surviving oblates, she didn't much care what was done with it so long as it remained in the hands of those wise enough to understand the danger of working with a facility that produced _antimatter._ David's gate would eventually go into storage along with the Arceus gem, despite all of Alvin's objections that the two of them be tossed into the sun and forgotten. The Lens was returned to the tree of Beginning, for all the good it did anyone now that its sole occupant was dead.

What troubled Logan was the way Also's staff insisted on taking Pokelantis back despite there being no Also left to claim it. She was more than a little uneasy with those people having access to technology that they did not, could not, understand. But what could she say to deny them?

The solution came in a form even Logan had not expected. It was one of her more dreadful days, in this case spent waiting in the morgue to personally deliver Also's ashes to the representative her government was sending to collect them. She was dressed in a real uniform, spaghetti and all, tapping her fingers impatiently on the tabletop. As usual with these people, she was kept waiting for hours, hours she could have much better spent elsewhere. But in a matter like this, when she felt at least partly responsible for Also's death, she wasn't going to insult them and give this task to someone else. Depending on how the votes went, this person's boss might be ending up with pokelantis, and so they'd be seeing plenty of each other in the years to come.

Logan's mouth opened gaping when she saw just whom they had sent, striding elegantly through the door. The woman was exactly as Logan remembered her, right down to the clips in her hair and the markings on her uniform. Perhaps it was the exact same uniform, recovered from her staff at some unspecified time. Predictably for someone who had just come back from the dead, she looked quite smug at Logan's expression.

"No wonder they picked your friend over you for the new Eldest." She said, stopping in the threshold and waiting for Logan to collect herself enough to respond. Naturally, she interrupted her right before she had brought together enough of her wits to speak. "I suppose you'll want me to explain." It was not a question. "You are too young to really understand. What is important is that the body is merely an avatar for the mind. Mankind has learned that lesson well of late, with so many willingly changed into something else to avoid the soulphage, or fled into artificial hibernation to avoid the dangers of war. For some few, the death of one body is a only a minor inconvenience." She extended her hand expectantly. "I'll be wanting my ashes. Oh, and my ship. I want that too."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alvin did not posess the mew gifts of teleportation or invisibility, but it seemed that over the next few months he developed some non-supernatural equivalent. He made an art of avoiding the people and pokemon that came looking for him. One particular individual he avoided most of all, though David seemed far less determined to seek him out than some of the others. Still there was no way he could not attend this final gathering of the legendaries. He knew many of the bigger, more territorial creatures had already scattered, that nobody would notice if he just vanished like so many others.

The meeting was mostly for mew anyways, and their species would be one of three completely represented there (assuming Alvin attended). It wasn't even curiosity over the identity of the new eldest that made him come, as he knew exactly who it would be. He had rehearsed the words of the formalities over and over, though Izzy made it quite clear she didn't give a damn if the new Eldest approved their relationship or not. The idea of asking permission to court one of the Eldest's subjects amused Alvin quite a bit, considering how well he knew the Eldest before His promotion. How much would being steward of the planet have changed him?

The day arrived, and as he knew it would, the meeting was held physically in the Arboretum of the Joshua. There were no other pokemon there, all returned to the wild or transferred to other ships, depending on whether they had implants or not. The ceiling was still in ruin, though the ground had been repaired and the trees replanted. The day scheduled for the meeting was the first sunny one after several stormy ones, and with the sod so fresh the ground was thick with mud. Still Alvin found the smell and feel of growing things his only consolation in this sea of metal that held him like a trap, making him feel more and more confined every passing day. There was no table, and David's gate acting as its stand-in for their discussion hardly helped calm him. There were no chairs either, for there would be no humans in attendance. Alvin was thankful for that at least, as completely stupid as it was to think about. The more time passed the more people made him nervous, though thankfully he had little to do that involved them. He floated in beside Izzy and found somewhere to sit high up in one of the newly planted trees, though arriving early didn't really help with the stares once others started arriving.

The Eldest arrived exactly on time, with all the precision of a computer program. He flew in proudly enough, though clearly lacking the brazen confidence of his predecessor. Still, he was bigger than most of the assembled pokemon, and bore a scent of dangerous power like a gun yet to be fired. But Alvin was not afraid of him, no more than he had been when he had first gained access to this former program as part of his research grant decades and decades ago.

"The rumors are true." Were the new Eldest's first words, hovering vertically in the air in the center of the room, settling down gently on David's gate. "Mewtwo and Sabrina both declined taking the office, and so did Also. That means you're all stuck with me."

"As it should be." Mewtwo said, leaning confidently against a nearby tree. "It is not fitting for me to fill an office meant for your kind. I have responsibility over enough pokemon." A handful of those were Mew, flying near him or sitting by his feet. This didn't seem to bother this Eldest as it bothered the last, who seemed almost totally unphased by his presence. Even Logan seemed more relaxed, not avoiding contact with her daughter's eyes the way she had at the previous meeting. Not that Alvin had been there.

Many of the pokemon here were… haggard, though the few months since conflict ended had softened that a great deal. They weren't shrunken and protein-starved the way many humans looked these days, since they had powers of their own for getting food and didn't have to depend on a state-sponsored budget of algae and reconstituted protein while everybody waited for the first harvests.

"I thought Also was dead." Piped up Marilyn, one of the only still-living Shaymin. Her brother Richard was at her side, the only non-legendary in the room, having apparently evolved since Alvin last met him and seeming fairly content to remain as a Lucario. Alvin felt awful for Shaymin, their numbers decimated between the loss of the main fleet and the last battle with the exarchs. Could they recover with so few? Alvin could only hope so… or else he might have to get personally involved in finding them a few willing individuals from the past…

"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Someone said from one edge of the room, a flash of blue fur in the little lake of pink around her. She was smiling at Marilyn though, thoroughly amused. "Unless you think Atlantis flew off on its own." Her humor faded, her face showing a little of its great age. "Like Mewtwo, I have my own obligations."

The Eldest waited to be sure nobody had anything else to say before he spoke. All eyes seemed to be on David though, and after a moment, that mew spoke up, looking somewhat reserved. That was when Alvin averted his eyes, though he couldn't block out the words. "I am not ready. Too much of this is my fault. I'm not fit to lead anyone."

Alvin did not have to ask what David's failures were. He wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for David's arrogance with her own powers. Her hubris. Though he suspected that Terah had something to do with his creation as much as David. Surely he had been watching, as the Eldest watched all things. Terah could have corrected whatever mistake David made in sending him to the future.

He also wondered why David had sent him to the future as a trainer, though… maybe he didn't. Not after his conversation with Terah. There had been more talk over what had made Alvin into a Celebi than he felt comfortable with. Even then Terah had been a master telepath, and Alvin wondered how many times she had heard the truth in his head even when he obfuscated or told an outright lie. Alvin had dropped many of the questions he had for David once he figured their answers on his own. Why had David made him look younger? It was no accident that he'd stopped jumping through time when his age roughly matched Izzy's, and no accident she'd seen him as an exciting trainer to be looked up to and admired instead of a strange old man to be feared.

Still, there was one question he had to have answered, and asking now would mean that David would be forced to answer, what with everyone watching them. "Why?" He lifted off the tree, floating down a little so everybody would see him. There were many eyes on him. Before he could say anything, Logan's little daughter Jamie had floated up to him, sniffing at him wide-eyed and eager. She had the grace not to interrupt his remarks in front of everyone, though she did speak privately to him.

'You're a Celebi!' She said, circling Alvin. It seemed she had been one of the few not to notice him as she came in. 'That's awesome! Mom said she knew about one but she never let me meet you.' Before she could say anything else, her sister followed her into the air, staring with almost as much childish interest at Alvin but not being nearly as brazé about it.

"Leave it alone, Jamie. It was about to talk… sorry." The older mew turned its eyes to Alvin as she said that last, too nervous to actually meet his eyes directly but looking at his little feet confidently enough, before turning to drag her sister back to the ground beside Logan.

"What was my purpose in all of this, David? What were your plans for me that you needed to send me away from the people I loved?" It was hardly the time for such a private discussion, but Alvin knew this might be his only chance. Once this meeting was over…

David did not flinch or hide, as a younger pokemon might have done, floating defiantly and just barely managing not to meet his eyes. "I sent you to the future at the Eldest's request. Terah was the one who thought it was necessary, not me. At the time I didn't believe what he said about the coming dangers, but I did trust his judgment enough to do what he said." Then privately, using the same technique Jamie had '_I hope we can still be friends, Alvin. We were so close in another life, maybe we can be in this one too.' _That was all. The mew floated back down, and Alvin returned to his perch in the tree, though many eyes remained on both of them until the new Eldest spoke up.

"That leaves me, then." He said, looking as though he would've preferred it didn't. "As Eldest of the Firstborn, I will do my best to protect all of you. With your help, I will rebuild what the Exarchs tore down, and repair what they damaged. Each has their role in this intricate system of ours. Shaymin will purify the air, and Suicune the water. Manaphy will shepherd a new generation of fish. We can replant the trees and rebuild the cities, more in harmony with all the life on earth." He paused then, tail curling about one of his hindpaws in obvious reluctance to go on. He did, though. "All our history is known to me now. Never has there ever been an Eldest that was not born as a mew. We… not just mew, all legendaries… have been recruiting humans and lesser pokemon to our numbers for thousands of years, but these recruits have never been considered true brothers and sisters. It is my wish that as your Eldest I will prove that we can be, no matter the method of our birth." He inclined his head slightly to Mewtwo at that, who seemed pleased by the remarks.

Most everyone seemed pleased by what he said, as several of the mew began chanting, lead by Logan. "Horray for Eldest Bit! Eldest Bit! Eldest Bit!" So many had died during the few days of actual war that Celeste was the oldest ordinary mew in attendance aside from Bit himself. That meant there were no surviving mew that had no ties to humanity or other pokemon, either through personal birth or through a parent one parent.

It was Celeste that offered the customary words of acceptance on behalf of the assembled pokemon, acknowledging Bit in her stewardship over them and pledging to obey his commands in the protection and furthering of earth and it's people. That was it for most of the formalities. Alvin listened with barely-restrained disinterest as the minutes stretched into hours, waiting until he had a chance to speak. Everyone had business to bring to the Eldest's attention, usually asking for his advice. There was none of the political posturing that many of the older generation would have expected from a meeting like this, should they have been alive. It was no small wonder why, what with half of the mew kittens and so many of the other legendaries in attendance former humans themselves. Bit was making it her personal priority to find a way to restore those humans that had given themselves into lunar storage, delegating the duties of food and water and the like to others. Alvin was quite happy about this, particularly when he learned about a handful of his own family members waiting up there even now. She was also making the resurrection of the many SAM units that had been activated during war of upmost importance. If Alvin had known about Glowworm, he doubtless would have thought her pleased with this outcome, even if she was no longer around to be a part of it herself.

Thinking about his family made him sad though, so he tried not to, waiting patient for his turn to speak and flying forward before Bit to do so when that time came. Unlike a mew, he did not have a mathematically perfect brain incapable of misplacing information, and the nervousness of being on display in front of everyone caused him to forget the words he'd practiced right when the time came. So he floated there silently for a moment, before forcing himself to mutter. "I was wondering if I… could maybe… be together with Izzy? I know she's yours and everything, but she feels the same way, and…"

A few decades ago there might have been angry shouting or at least scathing glances about a request like this, but now there were only a few giggles. Alvin was glad he couldn't see Izzy's face, he didn't want to know what she might be thinking after making a fool of himself like that.

But this Eldest was not the last one, and was neither adversarial nor territorial about it. "So you do. I know she feels the same way." He bared his teeth a moment. "If you hurt her, I'll eat you." Then he relaxed. "What did you think I was going to say, Alvin? You two do whatever you want that makes you happy." There was a little nervousness in his voice, almost regret for giving permission, as he cautioned. "Just stay safe. Not every Eldest in history would be so allowing."

Alvin's antennae drooped as he flew back to the tree, sitting down beside Izzy. Yep, Bit was an Eldest. Just like everyone to hold the office before him, he somehow managed to know what people were planning before _they_ did.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

But for Logan, Bit's future as the Eldest had never been much of a mystery. Far more troubling had been Jamie's fate, and the way she had been completely powerless to help her. It had been some small comfort that Also was having a similar problem with those she transformed… at least she didn't have to feel guilty about not having the power or whatever: It was clearly much deeper than that.

But now Jamie was cured, thanks to several pokemon that weren't her. She didn't feel guilty about not being the one to save the little mew so much as she was afraid for what might have happened if it weren't for these others. Jamie came to her _apologizing_ the night after the fighting was over and they were curling up to sleep together for the first time in ages, safe in the shelter of some tree in one of those rare regions that had not been touched. Miya was away looking for fresh berries, which is why Logan suspected Jamie had chosen that exact moment. '_Uh, m-Logan? Can I… can we talk about something for a bit?'_ She had asked, landing on Logan's belly and looking down seriously at her. '_Just for a minute…'_

Logan hadn't been too surprised, what with how agitated Jamie had been feeling. But then they had all had pretty mixed feelings following what happened, and she hadn't thought much of it at the time. '_I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For being a lousy daughter, and not a very good mew either.'_ She looked sincerely apologetic, which was not something Logan often observed about her. Normally saying sorry had always been something she did to get the tension off her for something she did wrong, so that she could go right back to doing it the instant you looked away. Her resolve was even more impressive. _'I'll do much better from now on, I promise.'_ It said a great deal that she was taking the trouble to use telepathy to tell her, and Logan knew how hard telepathy had been for Jamie.

Logan wasn't sure what to say, so for a moment she just leaned up and licked the little mew affectionately, as she had done many times before. Jamie did feel bigger on her lap than she had been, the first time Jamie's growth had ever been more than painfully gradual. Like all mew, Jamie grew with her knowledge and experience, and normally she had learned dismally slow. That Jamie felt substantially bigger meant her understanding had grown proportionally, and Logan was proud of her for that. She had always hoped for the little pokemon, ever since a freak accident had transformed her defenseless and weak, but rarely were there any physical signs confirming that her beliefs were based on anything more than Logan's unwillingness to let another die like her firstborn.

"I'm glad to hear it Jamie, but you can relax." Logan eventually said. "You don't need to stress yourself out or anything. I'm glad to hear you want to work harder. You should relax… you've been a fine daughter. You brought the cure to me, remember? That saved an awful lot of lives."

Jamie did relax, like someone sucking in his or her gut finally letting it out. She looked much happier not to be pressured into using telepathy. "But… but it was my fault I was infected, Logan! I was the one who wasn't strong enough to keep them out."

"Maybe not." Logan agreed, righting herself and forcing Jamie to either lift off and fly or get flung into open air. Naturally the kitten elected to fly. "But you had the strength to fight them off in the end. I think that means you're a perfect fit to be a legendary." Jamie seemed about to speak, perhaps to argue against herself. Logan silenced her by changing her into an Igglybuff.

Jamie whimpered and squirmed as she started to fall, though Logan caught her quickly and lowered her gently to the ground, landing beside her. "You're gonna be a great little mew someday. I bet you've stopped thinking like a kitten… I can tell. You're bigger… and I think you've finally started considering your future."

Jamie turned, nodding proudly towards Logan. "Yep! I sure do!"

"Really?" The older feline inclined her head, curious. "And what would that be, Little Jamie? Why don't you tell me some of your big plans."

The pokemon did not hesitate in her answer, looking just as proud as ever. "I wanna join the space program!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tayla was sure she hadn't been spotted as she zipped out of the treehouse, following the trunk of a huge sequoia down to earth so that she stayed unseen. Of course she knew her father would still be asleep: He never woke up before the sun. And if _Izzy_ was awake… she was caught already. Of course Tayla knew her parents had perfectly good reasons for not wanting her to go off on her own, and that was exactly why going off on her own was so exciting. It was difficult to get herself moving without the sun's help, but feeling tired was a small price to pay for her freedom.

Luck was with her today it seemed, because not even the pokemon her parents had watching their little treehouse noticed her as she made her covert exit into the rest of the forest. She felt delightfully clandestine as she flew away, the wind parting her antennae and chilling her a little. It was never truly cold in her home, not so close to the equator with such frequent rains and so many trees, so Tayla had never needed clothing before, and she wore none now. Not that she even understood the purpose of clothing, really. She had seen her mother human a time or two, but that had mostly been as a joke. Tayla did not have the transforming gift herself just as her father didn't, though Alvin always said that after changing into plenty of different things it was far more trouble than it was worth.

Tayla had very nearly escaped the boundaries of her parents extra-human senses and safe into the wilderness when she felt a weight slamming into her, forcing her to the ground. She fell gasping and calling weakly, her little wings struggling to hold herself aloft but too surprised by the attack for her mind to compensate for the added weight. It was fortunate she was so low to the ground, safe from anything but a little mild bruising to her pride. Tayla was no mew, but she feared attack here in the forest about as much as mew feared wild pokemon anywhere, which was to say she had never been afraid. The creatures of the forest would come to her aid should she need helping, as they had during the big fire the year she had been born.

Unfortunately they also answered to her father, and it was plain to her as she struggled to roll onto her back and get a good look at her attacker that this was one of those. Her father had a thing for negotiating with electrical rodents that she had always thought had more than type-advantage could explain. The pokemon atop her was a young but fierce emolga that she swore was always awake at the worst possible moments. "You're not supposed to leave the forest by yourself, Tayla!" He squeaked to her, baring his little teeth. "You should go right back home and wait for one of your parents."

But Tayla wasn't going to have it today, not when she was so close. So she reached out with the vine of a nearby creeper, twisting it around the Emolga's hindpaw and lifting him into the air with it, off of her. He tried to shock the thing off of himself, but with no effect. She had him now. "Not this time Eddie!" She stuck her tongue out at him, lifting back into the air and glaring. He tried shocking her again, but it all went down the vine, burning it a little but dissipating harmlessly into the ground and doing her no harm.

He whimpered when he discovered he'd been well and truly trapped. "Tayla! You know I'm just trying to help you… it's not safe if you wander. There are mean pokemon if you go too far, and worse, humans! You know what your father says. You're not just a rare pokemon, you're a _shiny_ rare pokemon. Even most pokemon rangers couldn't resist a prize like you!"

But Tayla was barely listening. She turned away from the pokemon and hurried down the path. "Bye, Eddie. Have fun in there. I'm sure my father or someone will find you and let you out eventually. If not, maybe I'll stop by on my way back. See if you're ready to apologize."

Eddie struggled at his bonds, though he knew Tayla's threats were empty. Whatever else the mischievous little celebi might be, she was no killer. And leaving him trapped nere vulnerable all day in a forest filled with predators would be the death of him. Even predators loyal to the legendaries that effectively ruled the forest would not spare him if they were hungry enough, he suspected. But as Tayla wandered away the vine began to slacken. It was only her powers that held it in such an unusual position, and as soon as she'd made it a few miles away, it fell limp at once, letting him drop undignified to the ground and scamper quickly back into the trees. With any luck, he could wake Alvin before his daughter got herself into trouble.

He couldn't though. Tayla always made her way to the outermost edges of the forest, where human settlements grew like a web through the land they knew, making gradual changes that eventually erased the world they remembered. Not that Tayla was visiting for those reasons… she was mostly just curious. She did not know the name of the village, not that she had ever asked anyone. She flew along the ground at first, soaring onto the sod roofs of one of the buildings and watching entranced as people went about their mysterious activities. She'd never really understood why humans did what they did, but they were always interesting to watch, whatever her parents might say about the risk. She listened to the language as she always did. She wouldn't even understand English if it wasn't for trips like this, fast learner or not.

She listened to their thoughts too, for all the good it did her in understanding their motivations. The process of economics was especially puzzling to her, and always had been. Why did shopkeepers take pieces of paper or plastic, sometimes even giving a few back, in exchange for food that they could actually use? Wouldn't it have been better to keep the food they made for themselves? It was all very mysterious, even to someone who could easily read the thoughts of both parties involved in any transaction.

Not that her father hadn't explained the whole thing loads of times, but Tayla could never wrap her head around it. The sun was coming up though, so she didn't really waste time thinking about it, laying on her back and soaking in all that delicious warmth.

She wasn't the only Celebi doing that right now, either. Somewhere not so far away, her father was yawning and stretching, waking slowly as the light did for his plantlike body what coffee did for many mammals. He woke more slowly than his companion, who as always made a game of seeing just how much she could mess with him before he would gather up the energy to move and push her off. He let her twist him onto his back without caring much, bend one leg upward without minding, though when she touched his antennae that was when he drew the line, sitting up at once and glaring at her, pushing her away with one hand.

"Alright kitty, that's enough." He stood up, wings fluttering agitatedly behind him as he did. "No more of that. We've got things to do." He looked a little more worried as he stood there, feeling Izzy's fur with one hand as he often did in the mornings, the warmth helping to get his insides moving. "I can't feel her."

"She's probably gone again." Izzy sighed. "Exactly like me when I was her age. My father tried to trap me where he thought I was safe, and it didn't work either." She spun around once, eventually settling down focused in one direction. "Looks like she went back to Azalea. _Again_. No Alvin, you don't have to get up." She pushed him back down. The roof of their treehouse was where they slept when it wasn't raining, since the upper canopy was the only place to get any substantial amount of light. Alvin didn't argue with her, laying on his back in the sun, closing his eyes again.

"Don't be too strict with her. We need to make her bored of Azalea. If she realizes how afraid we are about her, she'll want to go there more, not less."

Unfortunately for them, Tayla was more interested in the town than ever. More accurately, she was fascinated by one particular individual, following the girl as covertly as she could between the roofs. At first she had seemed a typical trainer, a large eevee trailing protectively at her heels and glancing inquisitively at just about everything. But Tayla wasn't just limited to her eyes: She was looking with her mind as well. The girl's thoughts were panicked, even if her behavior was innocent enough. '_They're following me, I know they're following me. Tom can't fight two trained Rockets and their pokemon! They're just waiting for me to release all this electricity and they'll know for sure it's me. It hurts so much… can't hold it in much longer, but where to hide? Pokemon Center?' _She stopped as casually as she could before it, looking the door up and down. '_Nope, closed dangit! It's not that early!'_ She hurried along as quickly as she could, passing a bakery and a gym and a pokemart, trying each of the doors in turn and finding them locked.

Tayla could see the pair following the trainer too, ordinarily dressed people, a man and a woman, doing an awful job of looking casual. She didn't even have to see into their heads to know what they wanted with the trainer, though at first she didn't understand it. They wanted to /catch/ her? How could that be? As she looked deeper, the woman briefly stopped, looking over her shoulder as she realized she was being 'watched'. Tayla quickly broke contact with the woman's mind, though not before she had her answer: The trainer was partly pokemon, enough that a pokeball would work on her.

When the girl reached the edge of the town, she glanced once behind her and then bolted, racing off into the trees as fast as she could carry herself. Her hat went flying from her head as she ran, and a pair of huge ears pushed their way free of her bright yellow hair, black tips erect as she pelted through the trees, seeming to struggle a little to find her way in a forest cast in perpetual twilight by the verdant growth. That was her undoing. Well that and the people following her. They were adults, long-legged and fit, and her short legs were no match. Soon they were on her, and she was forced to turn around.

"Good to see you're so healthy, Erica." The woman said, grinning mischievously. "We're so happy to see you are doing well. A healthy specimen is always worth more."

Tayla settled herself into a comfortable perch high up into the trees to watch as both of them released their pokemon and a battle began. The trainer's eevee fought vailiantly, and towards the end the trainer herself gave up on hiding and used what little electrical abilities she had, but it just wasn't enough to make a difference. She was outmatched, and very quickly beaten.

At least, she would've been if it weren't for Tayla. The little Celebi wasn't just going to let her get captured, not now that the trainer had fled into _her_ forest for protection. Had she been a mew, she might've changed into something else first, so that these obvious thieves wouldn't be interested in her. There was no way for her to do that, so all there was to do was float down beside the trainer, and shout at them all. "Leave the girl alone! My family doesn't let pokemon get caught who don't want to be… and she's pokemon enough to count!"

All three stared at the Time Travel Pokemon, though only the girl showed any hint of comprehension. As usual, Tayla hadn't thought this through, not even enough to speak using telepathy instead.

"Forget the girl, look at that pokemon!" The man said, shoving Erica aside in his eagerness to get at Tayla. "Weezing, Sludge Bomb!" The Celebi darted behind a tree to avoid the explosion of toxic slime, and that quick she was part of the battle. Still, young or not, it was a much more even fight for Erica once a legendary had taken her part. Tayla knew few attacks, but had the forest to do her fighting for her. She lashed out at the pokemon with thorny roses and pelted them with pinecones. It wasn't enough, though. They ganged up on her, and while she concentrated on one foe the other would strike from the rear. The trainer was on the ground, panting and exhausted from the battle, the injured Eevee sheltered protectively in her lap as she watched Tayla's battle as passively as Tayla had watched hers.

Tayla would never know where the power came from, but it came abruptly, like somebody flipping a switch. One moment she had her back against a tree, debating turning skyward and fleeing, when she suddenly realized that moving plants really wasn't any different than moving other stuff. The Arbok was doubtless intending to bite at her neck with some incapacitating poison. But it never got close. The thing froze in mid-air as she raised her paw, then went flying backwards into the trunk another tree. The Weezing was no more difficult. Once she had the hang of it, though she was careful not to seriously harm the thing as she tossed it into the snake. With both their pokemon unconscious and injured, the pair of nefarious kidnappers seemed much less threatening, and indeed they made no further threats, returning their pokemon to their pokeballs and darting off with only a few empty insults in their wake.

Erica struggled to her feet as the trainers fled, holding herself up with a tree for a moment before looking appreciatively up at Tayla. "You… didn't have to protect me." She said, sounding almost upset by the interference. During the battle she'd let her tail free of where it had been tied down beneath her skirt, and it drooped a little behind her. "I can protect myself." But at that moment her strength gave out and she slid backward down the tree, landing on her back with a moan.

"You couldn't _even_!" Tayla landed on a stump not far from her, watching with concern. "I was watching, they were gonna capture you and your pokemon. I can see why… you've got a tail. That's really weird! Not even I have a tail, and I'm a pokemon!"

The trainer's eevee pawed at her side, though he was watching Tayla with interest. "She can't understand you. She only speaks Pikachu and stuff."

Tayla frowned, and tried again. '_Look, I think you needed my help.' _She said, directly into the girl's mind this time. _'They're planning on coming back for you with reinforcements.'_ Well, that was only sorta true. When they left, the two had been planning on phoning headquarters about the rare legendary they found. This trainer's capture was guaranteed only because of the sheer number of Rocket agents that would swiftly be here.

As usual, Tayla felt guilty about it. She'd gone and made a blunder of everything and now there might be hundreds of humans invading her forest. She was skilled enough to read minds, but not enough to make those two forget what they had seen as her mother might've done.

As though that thought had summoned her, her mother appeared, with a crack of air that caused all the little leaves and twigs around them to scatter and swirl. "Tayla." She scolded, looking quite stern. "What have you gotten yourself into?" Before even looking to the hunan girl Izzy read the story in Tayla's memories, which was a little annoying but a fact of living with powerful psychic-types.

"A Pikachu proto-human this far into the past?" Izzy's voice was quiet, fearful. As though she were afraid to learn something. Tayla couldn't guess what that was, but another few moments and she must've learned it, because her mother quickly turned away. "I'll take care of those two Rockets. You just help the… help the girl." As quickly as she had come Tayla's mother was gone, leaving her alone with the trainer.

'_What's your name?'_ Tayla asked as she flew closer to the human… close enough to touch, but this she did with great difficulty, fighting her instincts for every centimeter. She suspected it was only the trainer's pokemon physiology that made her approachable at all. She touched her gently on the forehead with one hand, focusing all her power on what control she had over the natural world. It worked. The trainer seemed to recover a little, sitting up much more alert.

"Erica." She answered, seeming to understand the principals of telepathy more than most, looking directly at the legendary as she spoke. She coughed as she tried to speak again, though did manage to get to her feet properly. "I never thought I'd see another legendary again. You're a Celebi, aren't you?"

Tayla nodded, keeping her distance from the girl enough that she didn't feel frightened, though not nearly so far that Erica had to shout to speak with her. '_Yep! That isn't my name though. I'm Tayla… and I never thought I'd get to talk to another human! Did you hear? My mom didn't tell me not to! That means I can talk to you as much as I want!' _She did a little twirl in the air, though nothing near as ostentatious as a mew might've done. '_But I probably shouldn't… father wouldn't like it if he caught me. But… you're a trainer, aren't you? You aren't trying to catch me!'_

Erica watched the Celebi with amusement, though the pokemon grew more and more frightened with each second the silence persisted. "No I'm not." Erica eventually said, grinning. "I know what it's like to have people trying to catch you. And have pokemon trying to eat you, but I bet you aren't too worried about that." She reached out tentatively with one hand. "Can I… can I pet you? I've never touched a legendary before, and I might never get to again."

Tayla pondered the question a moment, though she was much more interested in what the trainer had said before. Knowing what it was like to have things that wanted to /eat/ you? She could guess Pikachu would know what that was like, being so low on the food-chain, but how could the girl… '_You used to be a pokemon, didn't you? A real pokemon… the kind with lots of fur that can't talk like humans talk!'_

The trainer smiled, though Tayla being so distracted meant she could reach out and slide her hand down the Celebi's back, feeling the soft, almost fuzzy texture of it. Not for long though, Erica seemed distressed by something over Tayla's shoulders. Tayla had no idea what it might be, until she turned around and saw her father watching, his eyes wide. There was no hint of reproach in Alvin's face, though she had expected it with as far as she'd crossed the line this time.

"Erica…" He moved closer, drifting gently down from the canopy and into the shadowed depths that he usually avoided. He stopped above Tayla, watching them.

"I guess that's him." She said, looking up uncomprehending at the bigger version of the pokemon she was petting. She pulled her hand back, away from Tayla. "I didn't hurt her, I promise! She saved me…" She took a few steps back, looking a little frightened. "We can go, I'm sorry! Please don't hurt us! We didn't…" But she didn't finish, because to Tayla's complete astonishment, her father zoomed up to the trainer, embracing her as best he could and rubbing his head against her chest, barely fighting back tears.

"Erica. You never told me you'd come to Azalea…" He looked up at her, the trainer much too shocked to do anything. "I guess you wouldn't, not if…" He touched her face gently with his antennae, the trainer frozen unmoving.

There was a loud crack from behind them, and Alvin turned, meeting Izzy's eyes as she reappeared. "It's Erica." He said, flying back to her and gesturing to the trainer. It was all the little trainer could do to look up with total astonishment at the three legendaries, looking between the green celebi and the pink one, along with the pink-furred mew, she grinned in sudden comprehension.

"That's why you're together!" She exclaimed, taking a few tentative steps closer to the three. "You're all a family." She looked up at the two larger pokemon, holding tightly to one another in the air. She could make no headway into the big Celebi's grief, and likely never would. "Your daughter saved me." She lowered her eyes a little. "Thank you so much, Tayla! I'll never forget it! I'll be much more careful from now on… I was way too careless to let those rockets catch up with me. My father taught me so much better… didn't want me to be a trainer at all after what happened to him… but Alvin can't tell me what to do!" She seemed proud of this fact. "Not if I want to do it anyway!"

Tayla glanced immediately to her father. Was this some sort of coincidence? Yes, it had to be.

Alvin flew forward, separating from Izzy and looking down seriously at the girl. As seriously as he could make himself look. '_It was very kind of Tayla to help you.' _He said, fighting to keep his emotions out of his telepathic communication. He mostly succeeded, except for a general sense of regret and loss. '_Now you need to be kind to us in return. You have to promise not to tell anyone about this, no matter what.' _He dropped down to her head level, meeting her eyes. '_Please… you have to promise.'_

Erica seemed taken-aback by the Celebi's request, but nodded hastily. "Of course!" She muttered. "I promise I won't say a word!" She crossed her heart with both hands. "Not even to my family! Not Alvin or Des or Uncle Rick…" She went on and on.

Alvin smiled. _'Good. You better not, or else… we might not help you next time you're in trouble. Now… you better hurry back, before it gets dark. It's not safe for humans in Ilex Forest at night.'_

Erica nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I think I've got get back to an airport… fly home… he was right about it not being safe to be a trainer. If Rocket knows enough to look for me, it's probably best if I get around as little as possible." She dropped to her knees, looking up at Tayla. "Thanks again for all your help… Tom and I won't ever forget it!" She reached out suddenly, embracing the little legendary, who had no choice but to close her eyes and endure the trainier's grip. Erica released her and stood. "Come on Tom! Let's get to the bus stop before the evening shuttle gets here." She turned, walking briskly away from the three pokemon, tucking her tail back into her skirt and tying it off even as Tom sniffed around for the hat she had lost. Finding it, she put it back over her head, smearing a little dirt on her cheeks where makeup had been worn away to reveal her bright red circles.

As soon as she was out of sight, Alvin dropped to the ground, sitting down against the stump and crying silently. Izzy was there for him to hold on to, and he was thankful for that, clearing his eyes against her fur. Or trying, at the very least.

"I don't get it." Tayla landed beside them, glancing at the path and back to her father. "What's wrong?" She moved a little closer. "That Alvin she mentioned… it couldn't be you… she would have a human parent, not a Celebi…"

Alvin didn't answer for some time, not until he'd fought back enough of the emotions to speak out loud, though his antennae were still drooping. "It's… I used to know Erica really well. But she died a few months before you were born, right at the end of the war."

Tayla had all the curiosity of the young with all the tact, which was to say not much. "How'd she die?"

The older Celebi wasn't sure how to answer, but he did his best. "She was very sick. The Exarchs hurt her a lot, but when they were gone, there wasn't enough left to heal. She went to sleep and never woke up."

"That's not so bad." Tayla said, rubbing her head against her father's to try and comfort him. "Humans don't live that long… but if she died when the exarchs came, that's decades and decades away! Besides… she died peacefully. Sleeping seems an alright way to go."

Alvin nodded, though he was crying again as he watched the path Erica had taken, faint illumination seeming to dance through the leaves above and casting the route in perpetual dancing fairy lights. "I guess so." There was a pause, before he lifted gently into the air. "You shouldn't worry about me, young lady. _Somebody_'_s _been sneaking away in the mornings again." He picked her up into the air, embracing her. "Your mother and I think that if you're going to do it anyway, we should at least live in a time when there aren't trainers to catch you." He let go of her, though not before shoving her back up into the heights of the trees.

"Better get packing if you want to bring anything!" Izzy called after her, watching the little Celebi fly back towards their little treehouse as fast as she could. "We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It seems very strange to be saying goodbye to this story that has been a a part of my life for nearly a year, especially sense I equait saying goodbye to this story to saying goodbye to the internet at large, and in a smaller sense, my friends I have made there. I will be leaving for years, as it happens, and it is a hard thing to imagine doing. But there's nothing for it, and even if I wasn't leaving I think the period of my life where I spend a great deal of time writing fanfiction really must come to an end.

Before anything else, I'd like to thank those who have read and reviewed this story. Your feedback kept me going when nothing else would, and if it was not for you there would be no story. There were days when had traffic high enough that thousands would see my new chapters, and this knowledge alone was consolation enough, but that time is over now. Your reviews made it feel like I wasn't alone, writing this only for my own use. I did want to tell this story, but not nearly so much as that. I'd like to thank the skype community as well, which continues onward to this day if anyone else wishes to join it. Unfortunately I don't think I will be there to greet you, since I am leaving the internet for two years, but many others will be, many of which have been following these stories since the earliest. Some of those have written stories in this same universe in fact, so if you're looking for some more of these characters that would be the place to look.

Kirby Oak has two such stories (though both may not be published at the time of this writing). On , they are called Delayed Arrivial and Celeste's Tale.

DarkPokemonLover has written all of his within this universe, though English is not his first lanquage so you'll have to be patent with his grammer, especially in his earlier works. Lastly, there are a few more minor stories I've written in the same general universe that haven't been posted online before. I'll be adding those in the coming days before I leave, since I figure: Why not? They may not be as strictly pokemon fanfics as this one was (which is why I didn't post them), but they hold to my usual standards of quality nonetheless.

I have more than a handful of regrets as I write this story: It took too long between some of the chapters with my life as hectic as it was, though far more troubling were a few of my creative missteps. I loved aiming so high in scope and paying my homage to lovecraft, but stories that stray so far from science we understand of nessesity do not have such a hard-scientific grounding. In Minor Miscalculations I stayed true to everything I knew about the sciences (which I like to think is substancial) but in this story there were so many strange concepts, so many things which were not nearly so strictly grounded. It's impossible to write about hard science when I'm talking about changing the fundimental structure of the universe, since we have no scientific precident for doing that. My vision of the world then kept these details vague, of nessesity, which I did not like.

I also feel bad about the culling of subplots and minor characters. I had many in mind as I composed this story, though over time more and more of them faded or ceased to be important. I wish I would have had time to develop them all as much as I meant to, particularly Adam. His story seemed most slighted of all the characters, even if The Outcast was intended from the beginning to belong to Alvin and Logan more than anyone else.

My third and perhaps greatest regret is that I strayed so far from my source material. This story exists because of my love of pokemon, but in writing this story I seemed to have taken the pokemon world and messed with it more than I was comfortable with. Sure the themes and characters and animals were still there, but many of the places were gone, and the political systems will doubtless never be the same after the events of this story. In effect, I've either trapped future stories in the past if they want to be about the ordinary pokemon world, or forced myself to write about the new world that legendaries and humans alike are building together in the future. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing…

But life is about regrets, and nothing ever done by men was perfect. So you all will have to be happy with my most honest attempt at a good story, as there won't be anymore writing from me for awhile. Hopefully the next time you see any of my work it's in a bookstore, though nothing can say for sure. I intend to take the themes I've nurtured here and expand upon them, fixing some of my mistakes. Fanfiction has been a great proving ground, and I was very happy to have the lot of you to test my (mostly unedited) stories on.

Should anyone else wish to write about these characters or this universe, I heartily encourage you. The FD-verse is a complicated place, but there is quite a lot of source material available now to help you through it. I only ask that if anybody does, please send me a link to the story at t i n y u r l . c o m / 6 l v k d m v (remove all spaces). I would love to hear that more have written about this world I love so much.

To all who have stuck with this story to the end, whether you read every chapter as it was posted in 2011 or are browsing through old website sometime in the distant future, I wish you a very fond farewell. My voice has echoed as if from the dust, but as with all things I needs fall silent now. You have joined me for this little adventure, and for perhaps an hour or perhaps a days I took you with me out of our world of dram normalicy to a place with the great powers that made the earth quake still. In a few decades I have no doubt that Pokemon and these stories and everything else will fall into obscurity. This little world of ours we created together: My words and your imaginations both. So long as some of us remember it still, the world lives on, waiting for someone to tell another story.

So far as characters go, I give credit where credit is do. Miya belongs to DPL, and Also belongs to Kazundos. Kirby Oak has contributed more characters than I care to count over the years, but Bit, Izzy, Celeste, and Jamie constitute the most important. All other characters I have not created are credited to their owners, including those covered by formal Pokemon copyright. This work was created for personal use only under the terms of fair use and I make no claim to ownership over Pokemon or any of the ideas or proerties covered under that copyright.

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